The Thinker's Party is a networking organization designed to inspire and support individual attempts to solve social problems within local communities. They hope to develop not only a network of experts in various social issues and their potential solutions, but of sources of funding for these projects.
It has the same flaw as most elevator stories, i.e. it's a touch stodgy and dry, but it contains what we consider to be the most important message about who we are. We encourage you to make it your own and share what you find exciting about what we're doing.
That said, we'd like to thank everybody who has taken the time to provide feedback about what we've done and said so far. It's ranged from "Only kooks call it a manifesto" to "there's too much apathy for that to work," and we've appreciated every bit of it.
1 comment:
My first question to anyone who says "there's too much apathy for that to work," is, "What about you? Do you care enough to be proactive in your community?" I suspect most people will pause in response to such a question or search for words before explaining personal constraints that prevent doing that person from taking action. For anyone who flat out answers "No," there is only so much one can do: either drop the conversation with a thought of "Well, there's your problem!" or attempt an inquiry as to why someone who would indicate an impression of wide spread apathy would himself be among the apathetic.
But let us assume for a moment that someone who says, “There’s too much apathy for that to work” is not himself apathetic. One possibility is that he is involved in his community, in which case one can applaud him and remind him that he and his actions are an example of why an effort such as that of the Thinker’s Party can work. The alternative is that he would like to be, but doesn’t know what to do, or doesn’t have the time or the resources or is up against some other obstacle that seems too big and mysterious to overcome. I am willing to bet that there are many such people as this and that many of them in a feeling of helplessness look to the government with all its supposed power to solve some laundry list of problems.
This, it would seem to me, is a cousin to the “Keep the credit” problem: same problem, opposite end of the process. The solution, I imagine, may be similar to the one proposed by the Thinker’s Party. However, along the lines of what I indicated in my previous comment, I think it is crucial to, over time be able to illustrate to people what this growing network of individuals is capable of. At some point one should be able to say: “I understand how you might think too many people are apathetic, but I have a long and growing list of cases that prove you wrong.”
Post a Comment