RSS feedSydney is tunnel mad at the moment. You can’t drive anywhere without bumping into a tunnel. Well, it isn’t that bad, but if you’re a politician trying to get ahead, slap a tunnel onto your platform and you’ll be in Canberra before you know it.
In our local area, there’s a big kerfuffle about a new tunnel they’re building, which will go pretty much under our suburb, and doesn’t include “in-tunnel filtration”. Here’s the official RTA page for the tunnel, and here are some activists for filtration, bicycle support and other bits and pieces, including a transcript of an ABC Stateline story covering the issue.
Anyway, the whole point of this post is that today I found a sticker stuck on my mailbox, which basically complained about filtration in the tunnel, and said that we as a community needed to do something about it.
I thought that in this modern age, that most people would have at least a basic understanding of psychology and the human psyche, and what it takes to mobilise and rally people behind a particular cause, or at least someone in such a group would. To then pick on my house, in a suburb that will not only not be adversely affected by the lack of filtration, but will actually have improved local traffic conditions due to the tunnel, and stick an ugly yellow permanent sticker on my mailbox saying such, is probably not the most ideal way to garner support for your activist group.
I tried scraping off the ugly yellow sticker, and the damn thing won’t come off. It left an even more ugly white square where the yellow used to be. Fuck filtration, I want the testicles of the streetwalker who vandalised my mailbox! After all, it could only have been a male.
So while we were going to start getting involved in the local community campaigning against the lack of filtration, we’re now reconsidering whether we really want to be involved with such muddle headed fools.
I’ve spoken a little about community groups in the past (Trust me, I’m not a psychologist and Community groups — a flawed operational model?), and the key thing, above all else, is identifying the skilled and passionate individuals, and empowering them with the authority and resources to enact the missions of the group.
A mistargeted campaign of sticker vandalism against your main prospect base I’d probably regard as a dumb arse backyard job, certainly by someone without the necessary skills or understanding, and whose knowledge of the issues is most likely flawed as well. Makes you question the activist sites mentioned above, doesn’t it?
Fortunately my green lefty socialist leanings mean I’ll still fight the issue, but I think you get my point.