Dryope

Living with E-vangelists

"I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:

1. Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way** the world works.

2. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.

3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."

--Douglas Adams

Now my corollary:

Of those under 35, half will embrace new technology to the extent they find it useful to their daily lives or a very cool thing to play with in their leisure time (or sneakily at work). The other half will ignore new technology until they're forced to use it because everyone else in the world already is. Both are normal responses and to be expected.

Of those over 35, the majority will ignore new technology, even when they've supposedly been forced to use it because everyone else in the world already is. This is also a normal response and to be expected.

BUT a small group of those over 35 and an even smaller (fringe) group of those under 35 will wildly latch onto new technology, stake their careers on it, go around telling everyone how wonderful it is, ground-breaking, the wave of the future, and will one day cure cancer. They will point to the very very small percentage of their ideological forebears whose wild ramblings proved unexpectedly correct, ignoring the very very many who were rightfully proved laughingstocks, who lost money in dot-com bubbles, and who knocked all that off and joined normal society once their bandwagon proved to be going nowhere with nobody on it. This, too, is unfortunately a normal response and to be expected. But that doesn't mean I have to listen to them.

ACLU Irony and Atheist Busybodies

I just got some very creepy junk mail from the ACLU. 

"How long will we let President Bush act outside the law?  Challenge your representatives in Congress to stop the abuse of power.  Please sign and return the enclosed petitions ASAP!" it says.  And that's just on the outside of the envelope.  Inside, there's a lot more, but the eeriest of all is a series of preprinted letters with my name and address already placed at the bottom, addressed to all of my state and national representatives. 

It's a bit much for a group I'VE NEVER CONTACTED BEFORE. 

It's also a bit much from a group that claims to uphold the individual's right to privacy from a prying government.  But suddenly, if I don't pay you taxes, that makes it okay to write my letters for me?

Anyway, I called them up to let them know, as sweetly as is possible (for me), that they were wasting their resources and they should take me off their list.  I spoke to three different people, all very nice, and all completely unable to help.  "We could have gotten your name from any of a number of organizations" is what the last guy told me.  Apparently they just "borrow" lists for mass mailings; they don't copy names from other organizations and actually add to them to their own lists.

So the ACLU knowingly spams people.  And I can't get off their list since it isn't their list I'm on.

Somehow, I think I have the Secular Humanists to blame for this, since they're the only politically active organization I belong to.  I'm still a little confused about how being atheist should make me want to sponsor legislation against the president.  If anything, I think it would be a clue that I don't like being told what to think, pressured into joining social movements that advertise themselves in giant bold uppercase words with lots of exclamation points after them, or otherwise bothered with unsolicited opinions.

Great. Now I have another organization to pretend to be nice to on the phone.

Et tu, ACLU?
 

I hate public radio.

I've had it.  This is the letter I sent them today.  It's overly righteous, but that seems to be the only language they understand.  I can't stand NPR, they only play BBC NewsHour (a much better program) from 9-10, when normal people are at work, and they won't stop sending me their smarmy letters.  I *do* like "This American Life" and I gave money to them directly so I can keep getting their podcasts.  But WETA doesn't have the only other show I like, "The Thistle and Shamrock," despite my asking for it.  I'm completely done with these jerks. 

Dear WETA:

I once, in a moment of weakness, gave you $50.  I asked for no gift, and I don't even listen to your radio or watch your television programs.  I just felt it was my civic duty to support public media.

I received many gifts in the mail, which I had not requested and did not want.  One was a Newsweek subscription that I did not use and would have refused if I could. 

I also received regular letters and phone calls from WETA asking for further donations.  I decided that I was no longer interested in supporting a radio and TV station that I did not use and which continued to contact me to a level I considered harassing.  I spoke to one of your representatives on the phone and explained that I would contact you when I was ready to give again, but that I would not contribute to WETA if I were contacted.  Your representative assured me that I would be taken off all lists.

I have continued to receive mail from you.  These, though a waste of your resources, were easy enough for me to throw away, and I ignored them. 

I have now, however, received a letter that has attempts to play upon my guilt to give to WETA.  It says:

"You used to be one of us. We counted on you. And you never let us down.  But recently you let your membership lapse."

I cannot support an organization that takes my money and then repays it with a guilt trip.  I was never one of you, and I will certainly never be so now.  I will continue to support the media I enjoy, not the sort I am told I should support. 

I will continue to support the quality and varied for-pay media that are the bedrock of American capitalism.

Please remove me from your lists.

Sincerely,
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