Normally the worlds of Seth Godin – marketing and business guru – and autism don’t directly intersect. I do think he has incredible insights we could learn from about blogging, building communities, and organizing ourselves into effective advocacy for our children, but that’s for another day.
I wanted to draw attention to his recent post “Willfully ignorant vs. aggressively skeptical”, which I think captures my deep frustrations both with the health care and insurance reform debates here in the U.S. and all the civil wars great and small going on within the ‘autism community’. (Still searching for a better term.)
Here are some money quotes:
The screaming is a key part, because screaming is often a tool used to balance out the lazy ignorance of someone parroting opposition to an idea that they don’t understand.
As people of my generation are known to say, “Word.” There’s not a syllable in there that I could change to make that more true.
It’s easy to fit in by yelling out, and far more difficult to actually read and consider the facts.
I imagine that will sound plenty familiar to those of you who have been witness to or part of all the ‘debates’ going on regarding autism. Shouting down dissent has become a reflex for some.
I have repeatedly heard people yelling at these protests some screamed variation of, “I want my voice to be heard!” My reaction – No, you don’t. You want people to just give you and your views credibility and give you all the benefits of a seat at the table without having to do any of the work.
Allowing someone else to talk would create the possibility – heaven forbid – of dialogue and conversation, both of which require learning enough about your views to argue for them effectively, self-examination, long-term commitment, and, well, stuff that looks and feels like actual work. But I can see that since dialogue could expose someone who hasn’t bothered to do their homework, people in that position would find yelling to be preferable to either that or going ahead and doing the work.
It’s hard for me to think of a more critical issue facing this generation and our children than health care. This quest to find the best possible system of care and access to it – regardless of your views – requires our best efforts and utmost commitment to ensure the health and well-being of our families, communities, states, and country.
I imagine I’m mostly preaching to the converted here and the people I’d like to say all this to wouldn’t likely ever read our blog. But I’ll say it anyway.
Being lazy, parroting the idiocy of others, yelling without ever listening, and not bothering to learn anything disgraces our nation and what we stand for. And most of all, it disgraces our children and the trust they put in us.
Just. Stop. It.
Posts that hopefully are similar:
- And Now We Will Hold You To It
- Obama and McCain on Autism Spectrum Disorders, Education, and Health Care
- President Obama and Autism
- Stimulus Bill Passes House! Time to Focus on Senate
- Help Military Families Get Autism-Related Therapies for Their Children
- URGENT ACTION ALERT! Special Education and Disabilities Funding on the Chopping Block (Updated)
- Sensory Processing Disorder and the DSM-V – Call to Action
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Word.
And, thank you.