Withdrawal From Participation: Coward's Path or Conscientious Protest?

Annals of the Homestarmy

Monday, November 3. 2008

Posted by Ancient of Days in Gathering Darkness

Comments (6)
Trackbacks (0)

Withdrawal From Participation: Coward's Path or Conscientious Protest?

The looming political situation, some frustrations at work, and a conversation with Mrs. AoD led to a "perfect storm" of thought this weekend that has had me brooding about "participation" for 2 days.

These are not "new concerns" - in fact, I often find myself in this frustrating situation where I feel I can see the answers to problems plaguing a system, but I can't get anyone to follow me well enough to implement such. Part of it has to do with the fact that I'm not what anyone would call a "natural born leader", part of it has to do with my own reluctance to lead - I really don't like being "in charge". In some of these situations, my best solution at times has been to completely withdraw from involvement - either by seeking a job elsewhere, not going to church, or contemplating staying home at election time.

However, I've started to wonder about the value of "withdrawal from participation" - am I really getting any further along, or am I just hurting myself? Unfortunately, I've reached that stage in my life where I no longer believe that I am smart enough to noodle my way through every problem in a complete vacuum of input, so here I pose to each of you some abstracts of the problems that frustrate me and make me want to "check out" - what would YOU do?

1) Employer
Your employer is riddled with systemic issues: the overall mediocrity of the "rank and file" employees only exceeded by their misbehaviour and malfeasance; the executives are clueless, lazy, or too busy lining their own pockets to be bothered fixing anything; the owners treat the company as an extension of their personal checking account; the CEO is too spineless to fire the rotten employees, and too ineffectual to hang on to the quality people.

You are a low- to mid-level employee, frustrated by the stagnancy and and inaction of your superiors, and the stupidity and incompetence of your peers. You firmly believe that if they'd only listen to you, that you could really turn this company around, but no one seems to hear your desperate cries. Do you try to fix things from the inside, or do you seek new employment? How many empty promises will you allow to go undelivered before you move on?

2) Political
Your country's political system, once a shining beacon of hope, has become more of a glittering jewel of greed. The current crop of candidates for the highest office in the land all strike you as slimy, worthless sell-outs who are incapable and unwilling to restore the country to its former glory. However, there is one candidate that turns your stomach slightly less than the rest - do you vote for him, or stay home on election day? Do you run for office, or get involved in your chosen political party's local and regional efforts, in the hope of "steering the ship" to a brighter day? How can we make our voices heard? Can we get a fundamental change, or is it too late? Is there cause to fight for the concepts on which the country was founded, or do we just strap in and hang on for the end of days?

3) Religious
You belong to a large, global religion. You firmly believe the tenets taught at the highest levels of the faith, but when you go to your local "branch" of the church, you find yourself wondering: Is this really the same faith that I believe in? Do these people actually hold the same values I do, or are they using the infrastructure of my beloved faith to spread something more insidious? Is it possible that I'm doing more damage to my spiritual well-being by attending services here than I would if I just stayed home?

Your conversations with the local clergy have disheartened you completely - the fish clearly rots from the head. What do you do?

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Johnny Elbows on :

*_Participation within your employer_*
I am currently facing a similar situation with my employer. I believe that my employer has made a colossal mistake, but, at the moment, I am not affected by the decision. How am I responding to the decision? Am I fighting it kicking and screaming? Am I doing everything that I can to make sure that the decision is reversed? No, and No. Why am I not fighting? I have chosen not to fight because I simply do not care enough about my employer. Over the past few years, my employer has shown time and again that it has very little regard for me, for my goals, and for my advancement. My apathy is inspired by its apathy. So, how am I responding to this situation? I am minimizing my presence within my employer. I am looking for exits. I am learning new skills, and I am trying to help other employees learn new skills, so that when the poor decision does begin to affect me, I will be ready to find other employment.

If I believed that my employer cared to change, and if I believed that my employer would dispense the resources necessary for change, then I would fight for change, but I have lost the belief that my employer would meet either of the above conditions.

Johnny Elbows on :

*_Participation in the political process_*
As you know, I sympathize with you completely on this issue. So how am I reacting to the current situation? I have decided that I do not know my own views well enough to make a decision. I have decided that, for the moment, I am going to withdraw from the political process so that I can assess my own views. To do this, I have begun an essay exploring my own political views. For me, the best way to find out what I think is to write down my thoughts and try to shape them into a cogent form. With this end in mind, at some point soon, I hope to have a document detailing my personal political platform. I doubt that my views will mesh well with the views of any of the established political parties, but since I believe that the Republican party is slowly transforming itself into an irrelevant also-ran, I also believe that a vacuum is forming that will allow independent and third-party candidates to succeed more frequently. When I understand myself, I think that I will be in a position to speak authoritatively, to recruit like-minded individuals, and to speak with a voice worth listening to. At that point, I think that I may be more ready to try steering the ship.

The Mad Giggler on :

1) I think Mr. Elbows laid out my arguments here very well, minus the part where I already moved on. Thankfully my current employers do seem to "get it."

2) There are more than likely local issues that deserve your attention more than federal issues. Your vote in a federal election is worth nothing mathematically speaking. Your vote in a city or county election, on the other hand, is mathematically significant.

3) Requires more thought than I currently have time to give.

Johnny Elbows on :

*_Participation within your religion_*
Thankfully, I have never found myself in the situation that you describe. If I were, however, here are some things that I hope would do before abandoning a religion that I truly believed in:
I would spend some time on introspection.

I hope that I would evaluate myself to see why I go to my "local branch of the church." Do I go to search for "anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy?" Or do I go to "make a man an offender for a word?"

I hope that I would evaluate myself to see I were fulfilling the promises that I had made upon joining myself to the aforementioned church.

I hope that I would search my own life for ways to love my neighbor, that I would search for ways to love the word, and that I would search for ways to love the work.

If, upon the completion of my introspection, I found that my inner vessel was cleansed, then I would have to conclude that my religion was doing me no good, and I would, at that point, withdraw from participation.

Johnny Elbows on :

In short, I think that there is a time to fight, and a time to retreat, to evaluate your strategy, and to return to the field. I don't believe that a complete withdrawal from participation is profitable to us or to our society.

Ancient of Days on :

Johnny - excellent input, thanks. Hearing your approach to a problem always helps me see things from a different angle. I'm anxious to see your essay elaborating your political views.

MG also gave some really good insights via instant message, I'll let him decide which (if any) of those he'd like to see as comments on the blog.

Add Comment

Name

Homepage

Comment

In reply to

E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA