Last week, I got invited to a fund raising dinner in which a very famous Australian activist for homeless youth was giving a talk.
To be honest, I hated it. I found it voyeuristic on the part of the assembled diners to come and have a look at the guy. What is this? Weeknight entertainment? A one man freak show?
I still tried to get something out of it, and I was surprised to be able to distill the guy's whole stance in just one half line: "nobody cares about you but I do".
I haven't had a chance to fully think about it any further. My first reaction was: what an annoying populist brat. Thank you very much for depicting all of the world except yourself as the bad people who don't care. As if that's going to help.
At the end of the day, I still don't know how constructive or unconstructive that stance is. It sure is appealing to a strand of adolescent angst. But then again, so was National Socialist fascism.
I'm uneasy about that stance, but I can't pinpoint why...
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Speaking of links between that attitude and National Socialist facism, I once watched a documentary about a White Power group down in the USofA that was started by a fellow who took in homeless kids and he basically said the same thing to them: "Nobody cares about you but me... and it's all the fault of non-white people?" And he really did love the hell out of those kids. The result? He created a radical group of followers indoctrinated with his ideology and willing to perform violence and go to jail on his behalf and at his behest.
Anyway, I hate that kind of event. I think this other Aussie guy summed it up much better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcdtVD8X1-A
Word? Word.
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