How the marginalized becomes the mainstream

当异议变成主流

Throughout history we learned that the human society is never homogenous. There are all sort of people that exist and the mainstream have to deal to each of them accordingly. From the black/ slaves, the feminists, the animal rights advocators, to the disabled and homosexuals, from the political activists to the religious ones, everyone wants to find a place in the society. Most of these group started as dissent from the mainstream views (e.g. Christianity emerges among the Judaism society) then slowly gain the acknowledgement and support of the public and finally emerges as the mainstream (hegemony), to suppress another dissent. The article discusses about the manufacture and processing of the dissent and how do they

Observe the analogy between an individual and a group of people.

Step 1 the body

You will need a body, which is an organization with tones of members. In this democratic society, quantity is everything. If you can prove that your organization is a significant source of votes worthwhile of supporting you should have no problem in exerting political influence. Anonymous reporting during balloting is usually the way.

Step 2 the behaviour

Action of a body is termed the behaviour. The group need to act out in order to gain attention. Protest, leaflet distribution, seminar are common ways.

Step 3 the history

Doing the usual stuffs above is insufficient – you need a potential issue to exploit. The general public are forgetful they tend not to focus on the general idea unless a specific cases erupted. For instance the government will only take steps to improve road safety when there is a prominent figure died in a traffic accident, or consider about the welfare of the disabled when there people sacrifice unnecessarily – tragedy or litigation is always the tipping point.

But my point here is not just an exploitable issue, the sensational effect fades away quickly with time. We should go beyond an issue: telling story about the group members involved. This is how you can make the appeal long lasting and image of the organization become clearer. Without history, the society members are just a bunch of people without face.

Remember remoteness promotes callous and indifferent, only a true story can break down the barrier and evoke empathy from the public. Only then they will realize that these people are real humans with feelings.

距离让人保持冷漠。对人们来说边缘团体只是面孔模糊的一群。唯有真实的故事才能让人感同身受，明白他们其实也是有血有肉的一个人。

Step 4 the soul

As the group evolved the ideology of the organization will evolve as well. Now they need reasons to back them up and arguments to put forward so that they can fight with the mainstream ideologically. Because no matter how great is the grassroots movement in step 3, it is ultimately the ideology that will make a difference in the parliament. Thus the ability to convince the MPs lies on how sophisticated and impressive the philosophy of the group.

学说是一个组织的灵魂。学者之流最喜欢搞形而上学的东西，但理论却是说服反对派最有效的方法。

Notice the sequence of the emergence (body -> soul). All organization went through the same struggle before they can revolutionize the mainstream. They first gather with a rudimentary believe then as the institution become more established the philosophy will serve to reinforce their action and believe. People do not become communists after reading das capital by Karl Marx, instead they join the body then only they start reading it to justify their actions; the same goes for Christianity and other religion, most people are converted bodily (step1) first due to the friendly environment, only then soully (step 4) by reading the bible.

人们通常都是作了选择才为自己的行为找出理论的根据，偏见才会这样不断自圆其说。

You should realize by now that why the Establishment likes to suppress the freedom of association (step 1) and freedom of expression (step 4). The government tends to use media control as a means of social control to repress any dissent. However thanks to the internet and the emergence web 2.0, dissent is now so unconcealable. We are now heralding the Wiki era where everyone has the rights to voice out their opinions and freedom to express it to the world, uncensored! The feminist can come up with their own feminist theology, the political activists has the liberation theology, the homo group have their queer theology. The Vatican still holds the dominant interpretation of the bible but they are no longer the sole and exclusive interpretations. Everyone has a say in interpreting God’s words. I always believe that debate can help to clarify things. Now I would prefer to see the church employing their logic and reasoning to fight in various arguments rather than just employing violence to oppress all the different voices, as they used to do.

第二代网络宣告的是自由言论的时代：每个人都能以自己的观点来诠释理论，打破了过去一言堂的僵直状态。唯有百家争鸣，才能让真理越辩越明。

Labels: politics