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Madam Butterfly · (#33 (**permalink**))

Incognito wrote:

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MB - I hear a lot of talk about who's doing what but with the end game I had you'll find your entire life and the way you live it everyday is devoted to that end game. There is nothing you do that is seen as extra or special but maybe I should have clocked on a lot earlier when other people told me I was doing special things where all I had was a career and a car and a house for my children/family :? which was simply laying the foundations towards the end game. Well you are right in saying that everything you do and the way you live is devotd to the end game. BUT only if you are doing positive things and living a positive life. But by no means should simply "living" and doing the "normal" things be enough. I appreciate there are people who cannot do more than they already do, but no one should think "well i have a job a house and a car so i have done my bit for Black people". Unless your career involves "doing your bit" then that is a complacent attitude to have. Almost an "I'm alright Jack" attitude.

Now you know what I mean about getting high on trivialties i.e. it's trivial in relation to the size of your end game. But it's like religion, it's ok as long as everyone is practising the same one. See, now i would say "trivial" is the wrong word to use. Small, maybe, but not trivial. Maybe volunteering twice a week is a small step, but if someone doing that is effecting positive changes in the life of another why shouldn;t they "get high" about it. Now feeling self rightous about "doing good" is totally a different thing, and there are those who get high of of their own self righteousness as opposed to from doing good. But anyone who "does their bit" shouldn;t be lumped in with those who simply want another reason to look down on others. Like i say, there could be many reasons why people cannot contribute and noone should be made to feel less than anyone else. Maybe you (you as in the general "you" not you personally) feel that you are doing enough simply by living a positive life and having a high standard of living. I am not going to look down my nose at anybody because they don't/can't do what i do.

What we are doing is the impossible, telling ourselves we are contribting to the cause but all with our own rules of personal comfort. This I refer to as the shattered windscreen approach where we get all these individual pieces of glass of which some can and some can't see they are supposed to be working together to form a single pane of glass and each piece thinks they are the centre with the pane being held together by them. Well again i see what you are saying. But surely it is better to contribute to the "shatterd windscreen" than to simply sit back and say "these people are wasting their time. That windshield will never hold". At least those people are TRYING to do something, as opposed to being a sideline naysayer.

With no common protocol we rejoice that at least we are still holding loosely together. And with the wrong protocols, like money and sex, each piece feels they are doing their bit which for the most part is for no other reason than to give them the right to say they are not the cause for the pane failing to hold firm.

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well again i say it is better to be part of TRYING to be the solution, as opposed to saying "the fact i am not part of the problem is enough".

Indeed I feel it's embarassing that as a people we 1) even debate these things 2) ask questions like the one heading this thread and 3) even worse be at war over them. well i don't really see whats to debate. The black community is in trouble. it needs to be helped. The best way to start is with children. The thread starter is simply looking for a leg up into doing this. As for being "at war" over it, i don;t think anyone is. I just think there are three main groups of people: those who are helping, those who want to help but can;t for what ever reason and those who don;t want to help or take the "i'm alright jack" attitude. For the latter group i think it makes them feel better to critisize those trying to help by saying they are self rightous or self serving or not really making a difference. it lessons their own guilt at doing nothing.

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If my observations are anything to go by then the majority of us see life as 'This is as good as it gets', I have to disagree. I think we are all aware that life SHOULD and COULD be much better than this. Of course there are those who get frustrated with the lack of progress and attempt to work within what we currantly have to work with. so after years of revelling in babylon we gain comfort in saying anything done now must help as the revelling didn't make it any worse than it already was. Well anything done now WILL help. And must surely be better than doing nothing at all. I don;t believe it makes no difference at all. Anyone who thinks it makes no difference at all is the one who has given up.

It doesn't take a genuis to know it just takes the wind to blow to see a shattered windscreen is not fit for purpose but each fragment is content knowing worse case it can cope on its own. And sometimes Black folks can BE that wind, tearing their own folks down.

In practial terms this is where I see we are at so by all means embark on endeavours to put back in as who knows, in years to come we might even be able to hold back a force 10 gale...but that all depends on the size of your end game. Well in ten years we won;t be in a position to do anything if everyone takes the attitude that anything done makes no difference.

My end game? Hmmm...I think I've said enough about babylons daughters, overnight militants, hypocrites and parasitesniceone.gif But what are you ACTIVELY doing to achieve your end game?