The Real Purpose of Contrarianism
Nov. 14th, 2003 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinue"Do you want to change the world? I say the world is already perfect." - a line in the Tao te Ching
As the old adage goes, I love politics and hate politicians. This is not, I should note, the same thing as hating political scientists, who I tend to love even when they have a misguided belief in the existence of the free market. But the actual politicians I have known - from student council members to mayors to county commissioners to Congresspeople, (what can I say; I've known a lot of politicians,) have had an alarming tendency to fall into "groupthink" - that is, to care more about consensus than the right answer. At best, this makes them seem vaguely ingenuine; at worst, they come off as callously ignorant.
The best example of this process was my first college dorm meeting - as a member of the "Women in Power" program, I shared a dorm with International Relations students, (almost exclusively). The problem was noise in the hall. I said, "hey, why not tape up some egg crate and change the accousics of the hall? I bet we could get some free from the grocery down the street. It'd take an hour at most."
They said, "We should all agree to be more quiet in the hall."
I said, "Are you crazy? You're in Washington, DC, studying international relations, and you honestly think that everyone is going to just remember to be quiet, that everyone is going to have the same definition of quiet, and that everyone who remembers is going to do it when they know there are no consequences?"
Guess who didn't win that argument, and who therefore unofficially moved in with the chicks down the hall who had carpeted their walls. I always try to remember this example when I get into one of my dangerous "political" moods. If you know me, you know the ones I am talking about. The ones where I start thinking I desperately need to be more involved in the Federal government, preferably at a very high level. Why these moods are dangerous, I do not know. But I am strongly assured that they are.
Chad: Didn't Val make you agree that it wasn't your responsiblity to save the world?
Romie: Yes; but since nobody else is being responsible, it falls to me anyway.
In other news, I wore my mechanic's jumpsuit today, which always makes me happy. It makes other people happy, too, because it makes me look endearingly dweeby. People have been grinning and waving at me all day, and strangers have been coming up with ridiculous exuses to get me into conversation. This is the Way of the Jumpsuit. At one point, (in DC, as it happens,) I was initiated into a large (and surprisingly influential) friend group for the explicit reason that, "hey, we don't know you, but you look like Luke Skywalker with blue hair! Hang out with us for the rest of forever!" I was crashing on their couches within the week.
The kicker is that I bought the jumpsuit from Neiman Marcus. (At a massive markdown, of course, as I don't have $3 million to spend on a t-shirt.) As a nice companion piece, we bought Patrick his own jumpsuit at a yard sale; when he was wearing it to mix some stage blood, he was pounced upon by a troupe of costumers who demanded that he never endanger the jumpsuit again because it is an important historical military uniform from the 1940s. So, my jumpsuit from Neiman Marcus; his jumpsuit that "belongs in a museum." That should be symbolic for somehing, and definitely isn't.
p.s. Am listening to "Hail to the Thief." I feel about Radiohead much the way part of an older generation felt about The Beatles: that each new album redefines music as we know it, and we should all feel extreme gratitude that we are alive at the right time to witness it.
p.p.s. I don't know how much faith I put in Feng Shui, but for as long as we've been married, Patrick and I have kept a large blue offering bowl of candy beside our front door. Patrick believes that this is so he can grab a handful as he walks out the door, in case he needs to keep his energy up during a long commute. Actually, it is there so that if rogue Trick-or-Treaters try to get the jump on us by showing up in March, we'll be ready for them.
As the old adage goes, I love politics and hate politicians. This is not, I should note, the same thing as hating political scientists, who I tend to love even when they have a misguided belief in the existence of the free market. But the actual politicians I have known - from student council members to mayors to county commissioners to Congresspeople, (what can I say; I've known a lot of politicians,) have had an alarming tendency to fall into "groupthink" - that is, to care more about consensus than the right answer. At best, this makes them seem vaguely ingenuine; at worst, they come off as callously ignorant.
The best example of this process was my first college dorm meeting - as a member of the "Women in Power" program, I shared a dorm with International Relations students, (almost exclusively). The problem was noise in the hall. I said, "hey, why not tape up some egg crate and change the accousics of the hall? I bet we could get some free from the grocery down the street. It'd take an hour at most."
They said, "We should all agree to be more quiet in the hall."
I said, "Are you crazy? You're in Washington, DC, studying international relations, and you honestly think that everyone is going to just remember to be quiet, that everyone is going to have the same definition of quiet, and that everyone who remembers is going to do it when they know there are no consequences?"
Guess who didn't win that argument, and who therefore unofficially moved in with the chicks down the hall who had carpeted their walls. I always try to remember this example when I get into one of my dangerous "political" moods. If you know me, you know the ones I am talking about. The ones where I start thinking I desperately need to be more involved in the Federal government, preferably at a very high level. Why these moods are dangerous, I do not know. But I am strongly assured that they are.
Chad: Didn't Val make you agree that it wasn't your responsiblity to save the world?
Romie: Yes; but since nobody else is being responsible, it falls to me anyway.
In other news, I wore my mechanic's jumpsuit today, which always makes me happy. It makes other people happy, too, because it makes me look endearingly dweeby. People have been grinning and waving at me all day, and strangers have been coming up with ridiculous exuses to get me into conversation. This is the Way of the Jumpsuit. At one point, (in DC, as it happens,) I was initiated into a large (and surprisingly influential) friend group for the explicit reason that, "hey, we don't know you, but you look like Luke Skywalker with blue hair! Hang out with us for the rest of forever!" I was crashing on their couches within the week.
The kicker is that I bought the jumpsuit from Neiman Marcus. (At a massive markdown, of course, as I don't have $3 million to spend on a t-shirt.) As a nice companion piece, we bought Patrick his own jumpsuit at a yard sale; when he was wearing it to mix some stage blood, he was pounced upon by a troupe of costumers who demanded that he never endanger the jumpsuit again because it is an important historical military uniform from the 1940s. So, my jumpsuit from Neiman Marcus; his jumpsuit that "belongs in a museum." That should be symbolic for somehing, and definitely isn't.
p.s. Am listening to "Hail to the Thief." I feel about Radiohead much the way part of an older generation felt about The Beatles: that each new album redefines music as we know it, and we should all feel extreme gratitude that we are alive at the right time to witness it.
p.p.s. I don't know how much faith I put in Feng Shui, but for as long as we've been married, Patrick and I have kept a large blue offering bowl of candy beside our front door. Patrick believes that this is so he can grab a handful as he walks out the door, in case he needs to keep his energy up during a long commute. Actually, it is there so that if rogue Trick-or-Treaters try to get the jump on us by showing up in March, we'll be ready for them.
