boondoggle
Member
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2007
- Messages
- 632
Alright, so I took a mini-hiatus from the forums after flying to Iowa for the whole Student Volunteer thing. Now, please try and get through this post (really, please); before that trip, before the TeaParty, I moaned and whined about the inevitable disorganization and muffled, unfocused passion of Ron Paul's grassroots.
We all want Ron Paul to win. Right? Right. We all believe that with enough focus and enough resolve, he can win. Right? Right. We all know that what he says is actual truth. Right? Right. So, we're all on the same page. We all want to help him.
Now, say one person has an idea, but, in the same hour, so do eighteen other people. Then, in that hour, there are idiots on the forum who unknowingly bump the one person's idea down, not up- down- with their personal choice to make comments on the threads of the eighteen others. The argument of many will be that the community has "chosen" that the eighteen ideas are more valid than that one person's. They think the community has spoken and, since we all are supposed to be on the same page, it's a fair decision to let that one person's idea die.
Of course, this argument would have been more plausible four months ago when this forum was smaller, when the November 5th idea was able to sprout into fruition. But now, I see an idea die in ten to twenty minutes merely because Ron Paul was mentioned on CNN, or Ron Paul was slammed by Fox, or a Ron Paul fan was on Nickelodeon.
So, I see this like like this: There are many, many people who want to help and many, many people who feel it'd be in the best interest of not only Ron Paul, but the country, that they become entreprenuers of their own idea and project. Though, they know they can't reach "Trevor Lyman Status" by themselves and they know their voice has to be heard.
THAT, supporters, is where our problem is. It can't be, not anymore. When was the last time a national massive project came up that was completely successful? Tea Party? Mr. Lyman's conception. Blimp? Again, Lyman. Bikers for Paul? Pre-forum surge.
Final thought on this: I see it as if the disorganization is killing the grassroots. Believe me or not, agree with me or not, but this is an opinion I have that I think is a SERIOUS threat. We need somewhere for people to go FOR all of the grassroots projects and I know that the Paulanteer has a newsletter listing, so why don't we try and shine some light onto that? Are you wondering what the point would be? We'd get supporters to learn about other projects they wouldn't normally learn about.
Now, listen! Hang in there for another paragraph or two, please.
While this disorganization is occuring, while these muffled ideas and projects are occuring, there are people that want to help. Yes, there are people that would like to do Free at last, but don't know about it. There are people who would like to help some Nevada meetup group, but don't know about it. There are people with so much excitement, so much newfound passion, that they need to express it, but . . . They don't know about the projects that they could actually help with, that would actually satisfy their quench for helping not only a man and his message, but a dying country that has infected its definitive message with the life-threatening virus of apathy and eroding individuality.
I'll stop rambling and say what I've been saying: There are people out there that want to help, but don't know where or how the oppurtunities are being offered. This occurs all while there are people in need of help, but they can't get their awesome idea or project to float in an ocean packed with other mediocre ideas or projects. And, now, this goes to say, that grassroots has almost reached the point of complete and total disorganization, that I almost see grassroots as a depressing portrait of muffled opinion, unfocused passion, and tapering resolve in a war we really were, and still somewhat are, winning.
The problem: We need a single website, maybe even a single page if it seems many are afraid someone would monopolize on the grassroots, that boasts the deadline, date, or planning of every project, fundraiser, or event of this huge army of underdogs and intellects that we have developed into. And it's not that disorganization and freedom is being taken away, it's just that we need a little bit of structure to easily express the various ideas and projects that grassroots is overflowing with.
Think of it like this, and this analogy may go over the heads of some, feelings and thoughts are disorganized, they're free, they're abstract, but the only way to communicate or express them are with words, with lines, curves, pictures, symbols . . . Basically, the only way to express and productively use our feelings, thoughts, or opinions are to use some type of structure which allows Paul's massive grassroots army to express itself without falling into a type of insanity, chaos, without falling into the black holes of miscommunication, disorganization, and confusion.
And, if we don't develop some type of structure, I'm afraid we'll have more failed projects, more decline in activity, and a one way ticket to watch a few passionate supporters spiral back down into the inert world of apathy on the mere reason that their opinion wasn't heard or that they didn't know what projects existed to focus their positive energies onto.
We all want Ron Paul to win. Right? Right. We all believe that with enough focus and enough resolve, he can win. Right? Right. We all know that what he says is actual truth. Right? Right. So, we're all on the same page. We all want to help him.
Now, say one person has an idea, but, in the same hour, so do eighteen other people. Then, in that hour, there are idiots on the forum who unknowingly bump the one person's idea down, not up- down- with their personal choice to make comments on the threads of the eighteen others. The argument of many will be that the community has "chosen" that the eighteen ideas are more valid than that one person's. They think the community has spoken and, since we all are supposed to be on the same page, it's a fair decision to let that one person's idea die.
Of course, this argument would have been more plausible four months ago when this forum was smaller, when the November 5th idea was able to sprout into fruition. But now, I see an idea die in ten to twenty minutes merely because Ron Paul was mentioned on CNN, or Ron Paul was slammed by Fox, or a Ron Paul fan was on Nickelodeon.
So, I see this like like this: There are many, many people who want to help and many, many people who feel it'd be in the best interest of not only Ron Paul, but the country, that they become entreprenuers of their own idea and project. Though, they know they can't reach "Trevor Lyman Status" by themselves and they know their voice has to be heard.
THAT, supporters, is where our problem is. It can't be, not anymore. When was the last time a national massive project came up that was completely successful? Tea Party? Mr. Lyman's conception. Blimp? Again, Lyman. Bikers for Paul? Pre-forum surge.
Final thought on this: I see it as if the disorganization is killing the grassroots. Believe me or not, agree with me or not, but this is an opinion I have that I think is a SERIOUS threat. We need somewhere for people to go FOR all of the grassroots projects and I know that the Paulanteer has a newsletter listing, so why don't we try and shine some light onto that? Are you wondering what the point would be? We'd get supporters to learn about other projects they wouldn't normally learn about.
Now, listen! Hang in there for another paragraph or two, please.
While this disorganization is occuring, while these muffled ideas and projects are occuring, there are people that want to help. Yes, there are people that would like to do Free at last, but don't know about it. There are people who would like to help some Nevada meetup group, but don't know about it. There are people with so much excitement, so much newfound passion, that they need to express it, but . . . They don't know about the projects that they could actually help with, that would actually satisfy their quench for helping not only a man and his message, but a dying country that has infected its definitive message with the life-threatening virus of apathy and eroding individuality.
I'll stop rambling and say what I've been saying: There are people out there that want to help, but don't know where or how the oppurtunities are being offered. This occurs all while there are people in need of help, but they can't get their awesome idea or project to float in an ocean packed with other mediocre ideas or projects. And, now, this goes to say, that grassroots has almost reached the point of complete and total disorganization, that I almost see grassroots as a depressing portrait of muffled opinion, unfocused passion, and tapering resolve in a war we really were, and still somewhat are, winning.
The problem: We need a single website, maybe even a single page if it seems many are afraid someone would monopolize on the grassroots, that boasts the deadline, date, or planning of every project, fundraiser, or event of this huge army of underdogs and intellects that we have developed into. And it's not that disorganization and freedom is being taken away, it's just that we need a little bit of structure to easily express the various ideas and projects that grassroots is overflowing with.
Think of it like this, and this analogy may go over the heads of some, feelings and thoughts are disorganized, they're free, they're abstract, but the only way to communicate or express them are with words, with lines, curves, pictures, symbols . . . Basically, the only way to express and productively use our feelings, thoughts, or opinions are to use some type of structure which allows Paul's massive grassroots army to express itself without falling into a type of insanity, chaos, without falling into the black holes of miscommunication, disorganization, and confusion.
And, if we don't develop some type of structure, I'm afraid we'll have more failed projects, more decline in activity, and a one way ticket to watch a few passionate supporters spiral back down into the inert world of apathy on the mere reason that their opinion wasn't heard or that they didn't know what projects existed to focus their positive energies onto.
(And I went and posted this in the wrong forum, whisk it away to the . . . Grassroots Central . . .
)
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