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Incognito · (#34 (**permalink**))

Madam Butterfly wrote:

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Incognito wrote:

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....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.

Precisely - hence my confused look. It goes down to people judging you by their standards. In my world I'm simply doing what's normal.

Small, maybe, but not trivial.

Nope trivial it is. We been in it long enough not to be singing the same song and making the same mistakes as the generations before us. But then we are an oppressed people, think we understimate this.

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.

Only if that makes you feel better i.e. the satisfaction of being seen to try is the end game. Got no time in exerting energy simply to end up where I was when I started. Though that's not to say you didn't learn something on that journey...other than don't waste time that is.

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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".

If we really new what the problem was we wouldn't need to try we'd do. The problem is with general perception of what the problem is.

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.

Don't think anyone really criticizes when it comes to contributions. They may debate method and motives but criticize hell no!.

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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.

An activist was on the news the other day talking about how todays hoodlums are an insult to the efforts made by people like him and his generation to put black people on the map. I always wondered why these activists are never invited to the news studio when there is good news. Maybe good is normal...or non trivial...i.e. nothing to make noise about.

And sometimes Black folks can BE that wind, tearing their own folks down.

I was going to mention that. It's in the interest of many of 'our' own for that windscreen to remain shattered. But yeah it's all about perspective i.e are you a top down or bottom up person - I'm bottom up myself. If it's about perspectives then shattered assumes it was once solid. It could be the fragments actually formed from nothing and are on their way to becoming solid....but that would be too much of a comfort zone for too many.

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.

Doing nothing isn't an option. Doing the right thing the wrong way wastes time. Better off finding that out in ten years than one hundred. Indeed looking at many today I'd say there's room to suggest that the masses have already reached that conclusion.

But what are you ACTIVELY doing to achieve your end game?

Whatever I do is normal...therefore I don't notice it...I guess that means nothing. But last ten years have really been carving a career, a family while giving free time and labour to all those who rang me when they needed a new computer, a computer repaired, money (including charities), words of wisdom and help with IT related exams..as I said all part of normal life....but couldn't take the phone calls in the end..nobody seemed to know anything about me, just what I could provide.

Currently working on this fund raising exercise but it looks like it's dependant on a tax loophole which means it won't last forever (not while labour are in anyway) which means I can no longer see the end game within it. Spent the last two years getting a cheap suit off my back which means it will probably take five years to get back to where I should have been today. An example of doing something the wrong way maybe. For all the time wasted do I feel satisfied for trying....hell no...that wasn't the end game.