Hi Steve
All the way through the Haiti Project, “Why?” was on my mind.
Asking WHY while actually DOING it felt a lot different from asking why whilst considering whether to do it or not. Didn’t make much money. Speaking for me, though, it made a lot of change ‘in’ me … changes which alter the way I respond to stuff happening in distant lands, on my doorstep, and in my home. It trained in me the beginnings of some “DON’T just Kneejerk either into either, ‘Help the Pooooor Bayeeees’ or ‘Don’t help the baybeees cos you’d just be supporting a Corrupt Global System’, you should Think Hard About it”
“Why? What good will it do?” I answer with “OK, then WHY do less or nothing? Will that have a better outcome?” Sometimes, refraining from action Does have a better outcome, but notice how that is a positive choice, a choice which is different from inaction due only to lack of obvious “yes’s” to the question “Why?”
Conversely, “Aw what the heck … unless there’s a good reason for NOT doing something, then soddit, let’s just do it,” is just, IMO, another way of staying asleep.
Steve, I’m bloody glad you’ve ‘Themed’ and are hosting this thread … Like, as with Robin’s Christchurch thread, you’re flagging up a ‘Let’s Think About it.’ You’re giving the question a load of wellie, and I reckon that’s needed, whether we’re thinking about it with guitars in our hands and and bellowing “Hunger,” “Ain’t it So,” and “Haitian Skiiiiiiiiiiiiiiies,” or standing around these fecking huge Global Holes in the Ground, as we are now, bum clefts hanging out our pants, leaning on our shovels, drinking mugs of hot tea and talking like … well, just like we are doing now. Is this a planning meeting? Is this a wake? Is it a checking of our moral ‘weapons’ and our motivations? Probably a bit of all, and more besides.
As I said to Robin re Christchurch, I say to you, Steve, re Japan: I volunteer to do spoken word and/or voiceovers, if needed.
Thanks again, and all the best
Glyn
With that in mind, I started something with the “soddit, let’s just do it!” attitude.