[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: Are You of the Body?

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
Are You of the Body?
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1248626120.shtml


   I noticed via Twitter that [1]King at SCSU Scholars picked up on the
   "civic engagement community" reference in my prior post of Dane
   Smith's latest op-ed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
   I had started a separate paragraph on it myself, but I later deleted
   it, unable to keep from writing several more, as I am now about to do.
   It's a classic ploy, playing on our insecurities to squelch challenge
   and debate. Let me fully re-quote Mr. Smith, emphasis mine, incorrect
   hyphenation left as is:

     In mostly smaller groups throughout Minnesota's still vibrant civic
     engagement community, innovative ideas are being generated about
     ways to save money, to make health-care and education systems work
     better, to reinvest in human capital and infrastructure.

   It's a familiar script.
    1. Postulate the existence of a group in the vaguest of terms.
    2. Ascribe warm, glowing, and cerebral attributes to it and its
       broad, glibly stated goals.
    3. Leave unstated the clear implication that you are somehow flawed
       if you do not support the group, its goals, and of course, its
       proposed strategies for achieving those goals.

   It is designed to silence debate, not embrace it. It's an appealing
   strategy for the liberal factions here in Minnesota, increasing unable
   to separate themselves from the increasing obvious gap between their
   promises and the subsequent results.
   Our public school districts are fond of this strategy. Everyone who
   doesn't vote for a referendum, well, there's something wrong with
   them. Don't they know that they're "stakeholders" in the community?"
   Don't want their kids or their neighbor's kids to get educated. It's
   never viewed as a vote of no confidence or as a response to past poor
   performance or poor choices in spending public money. At most, they'll
   concede that "they didn't get their message out," that if those voters
   only knew what they knew, they'd have voted yes.
   Then there's the "willing to pay for a better Minnesota" crowd. When
   we look behind the curtain, we find that this "community" is even more
   enthusiastic about having someone else pay even more for that better
   Minnesota. Part of "community" seems to involve getting something for
   nothing.
   I have and will continue to volunteer in various civic causes. I
   believe that many of my readers do as well. Just don't sell your soul
   to "the community" in the process.

References

   1. http://www.scsuscholars.com/