Contemplating the Hedgehog: How Not to Be an Activist: Don't be Denethor
Let me tell you a little story. It's called The Lord of the Rings.
(And here I'm going to steal liberally from the commentary on the Extended Edition of Return of the King. Cutting in case you are one of the five people who've neither read the series nor watched the films, and for some reason still care about spoilers.)
So there's this guy Denethor, see, and he is steward of a kingdom that is besieged by the forces of darkness. And he is convinced that there is no point in fighting the forces of darkness because he has been reading facebook.
Okay, no, he hasn't been reading facebook. There is no Mark Zuckerberg in Middle Earth. But Denethor has been getting his information through a network of magical seeing stones that tell you things that are more or less true ... but kind of lead you to draw the wrong conclusions.
(Come to think of it, maybe there is something we don't know about Zuckerberg. Ever met a giant flaming eyeball, Mister Zuckerberg?)
The Palantir consistently give the characters in Middle Earth tiny bits and pieces information. That's because you see things without context. You have the illusion of knowing a lot, but you may be missing some key piece that changes the picture. In Denethor's case, he sees the armies of Mordor massing in the distance and that Frodo has been captured. He thinks Sauron has the Ring. What he doesn't see is that Sam, thinking Frodo was dead, took the Ring before he was captured. Key bit to leave out.
This would be fine if Denethor would just sit around smoking pot and listening to The Cure, but unfortunately he gets it into his head to burn people alive and otherwise carry on cranky. He's so busy being in despair ... and trying to convince other people that they should be in despair ... that he makes a royal nuisance of himself right in the middle of a battle. I mean, if you were battling orcs, would you want to take a time out to stop your friend from being burned alive?
(I mean DRAMA QUEEN Denethor ... do we have to do this NOW? Never mind the army of cave trolls, its all about you!)
Needless to say: don't be Denethor.
Don't be the guy (or gal) who can't look away from the Palantir.
Really, truly, I know the inherent glory of Someone Is Wrong on The Internet. It's an adrenaline rush I know very well. And it makes me want to burn people alive some days. But when that happens it is time to take a nap. My judgment is impaired by the stupid. And the caffine doesn't help.
And even if you are in despair, don't stand around the Internet trying to talk other people into despair. Seriously this whole meme of: Don't bother voting because there is no point is pure Denethoria. Who is served if we don't participate, huh? (Sauron, duh.)
Despair is understandable and natural, especially when you're looking at something as apocalyptic as climate change or radiation sickness. But see, despair is just a feeling. It isn't The Truth (tm). There are times for sensibility, as Jane Austen might say, and there are times for sense. Feelings are a terrible master. There are times when you have to make the conscious choice to use your head.
There was a time in the 1950s when many people predicted that we would never be able to feed our growing population, and then somebody invented dwarf wheat. There has got to be a dwarf wheat out there for climate change.
I said exactly that to my friend judeissimus, head of special exhibits at the NC Museum of Natural History, and he promptly said, "We could plant trees."
Trees absorb carbon dioxide. They used to cover the entire eastern half of North America and now they don't. We probably can't reclaim the entire forest ... we're living on it ... but we could reclaim some of it.
We could put plants on the roofs of buildings. In Chicago, some people are. (Look on top of the Target in Uptown. You can see the plants from the El as you pass.)
Seriously. Plant trees. Don't burn people alive. (What was Denethor's carbon footprint, do you think?)
(And here I'm going to steal liberally from the commentary on the Extended Edition of Return of the King. Cutting in case you are one of the five people who've neither read the series nor watched the films, and for some reason still care about spoilers.)
So there's this guy Denethor, see, and he is steward of a kingdom that is besieged by the forces of darkness. And he is convinced that there is no point in fighting the forces of darkness because he has been reading facebook.
Okay, no, he hasn't been reading facebook. There is no Mark Zuckerberg in Middle Earth. But Denethor has been getting his information through a network of magical seeing stones that tell you things that are more or less true ... but kind of lead you to draw the wrong conclusions.
(Come to think of it, maybe there is something we don't know about Zuckerberg. Ever met a giant flaming eyeball, Mister Zuckerberg?)
The Palantir consistently give the characters in Middle Earth tiny bits and pieces information. That's because you see things without context. You have the illusion of knowing a lot, but you may be missing some key piece that changes the picture. In Denethor's case, he sees the armies of Mordor massing in the distance and that Frodo has been captured. He thinks Sauron has the Ring. What he doesn't see is that Sam, thinking Frodo was dead, took the Ring before he was captured. Key bit to leave out.
This would be fine if Denethor would just sit around smoking pot and listening to The Cure, but unfortunately he gets it into his head to burn people alive and otherwise carry on cranky. He's so busy being in despair ... and trying to convince other people that they should be in despair ... that he makes a royal nuisance of himself right in the middle of a battle. I mean, if you were battling orcs, would you want to take a time out to stop your friend from being burned alive?
(I mean DRAMA QUEEN Denethor ... do we have to do this NOW? Never mind the army of cave trolls, its all about you!)
Needless to say: don't be Denethor.
Don't be the guy (or gal) who can't look away from the Palantir.
Really, truly, I know the inherent glory of Someone Is Wrong on The Internet. It's an adrenaline rush I know very well. And it makes me want to burn people alive some days. But when that happens it is time to take a nap. My judgment is impaired by the stupid. And the caffine doesn't help.
And even if you are in despair, don't stand around the Internet trying to talk other people into despair. Seriously this whole meme of: Don't bother voting because there is no point is pure Denethoria. Who is served if we don't participate, huh? (Sauron, duh.)
Despair is understandable and natural, especially when you're looking at something as apocalyptic as climate change or radiation sickness. But see, despair is just a feeling. It isn't The Truth (tm). There are times for sensibility, as Jane Austen might say, and there are times for sense. Feelings are a terrible master. There are times when you have to make the conscious choice to use your head.
There was a time in the 1950s when many people predicted that we would never be able to feed our growing population, and then somebody invented dwarf wheat. There has got to be a dwarf wheat out there for climate change.
I said exactly that to my friend judeissimus, head of special exhibits at the NC Museum of Natural History, and he promptly said, "We could plant trees."
Trees absorb carbon dioxide. They used to cover the entire eastern half of North America and now they don't. We probably can't reclaim the entire forest ... we're living on it ... but we could reclaim some of it.
We could put plants on the roofs of buildings. In Chicago, some people are. (Look on top of the Target in Uptown. You can see the plants from the El as you pass.)
Seriously. Plant trees. Don't burn people alive. (What was Denethor's carbon footprint, do you think?)