Open Our Eyes

#1

This site is very new to me, I just want to commend anyone that has this burning desire to make change. I cant help but wonder, what makes one sense that something is not right in the world today, opposed to those who don’t sense anything? What will it take for all the eyes to be opened.

If i could put the very thing that haunts me into words. The best way i could would be by quoting Edmund Burke. The irish political philosopher once said - “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”. For me to obtain knowledge of something, but withhold it from people that would benefit greatly from learning that “knowledge”, Isn’t that a form of evil? Or at least a form of weak evil, lack of will, laziness?

So once apon a time i was in a Pyramid scheme affiliate program. I was selling huge amounts of product just to give it away and recruit people to do the very same. Ethically and morally it didn’t feel right with what i was doing. I quit the day i found out the truth. What the pyramid scheme did teach me was the amazing math of duplication (at my peak i spoke to a crowd of 3000).

The duplication works like this… I tell three people about the product and (in a perfect world) they tell three people each, who go on to tell three people each so on and so fourth. If you hit the tenth tier, 59,049 people would have heard about it. eleventh? 177,147 People. You understand.

Oh the change that will come with numbers, the people in the pyramid scheme have money as a desire, what can’t we achieve with our future generations life as our will and drive?!? We have no reason NOT to stand up.

How can we open societies eyes to the daunting horrors of the now?
What goals can we be setting and achieving Right now?
Who will help construct a wider plan? One we can implement in day to day conversation from the bus driver to the office colleague?

Views? Ideas? Oh and please feel free to correct me if my line of thinking is off :wink:

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#2

As I see it meritocracy is a pretty intellectual concept. But what you are saying is true, it would be nice if someone wrote a story that is easy to remember, is tellable in a few minutes, and is easy to grasp. I talked to several people about it and most didn’t like this or that, especially 100% inheritance tax. This is because people are generally conservative and new ideas don’t appeal to them until they thought about it (which most people will never do).
So, is anyone willing to write a good story about meritocracy, that has all major concepts in it, has humor and appeals to a large audience (not too intellectual) and can be told to anyone in under 5 mins?

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#3

Every single day we are being sold to. I work in sales you see, you’ll find that many times all the customer is trying to do is sell you the idea that he/she doesn’t want the product (rather than saying it up front). Its now part of us.

Essentially its a sales pitch right? Hook (attention grabber) Look (evidence) Book (others/website/quotes(sometimes)) Took (close the sale).

Today i had a conversation on the bus with a guy i approached. I talked to him about the world and consumerism eventually giving him a link to this website. So i approached him and talked for a bit. After a while (as a random question) I asked him if he would ever run through a crowd, pushing people and running over them? He obviously said no. Then i asked if he would do that if his daughter had a knife to her throat and there was a crowd of people in the way. He answered with Yes.

This led into me explaining a bit of how we all could demonstrate psychopathic tendencies in the right instances and how money and greed works hand in hand with “loss of morals/values”. We stayed on the whole consumerism topic for ages. I blew him away. i believe a directed “plan” would work.

For there to be a change there needs to be action. Whom is here other than the self interest of the concerning?

#4

I think most people that come here are poor people. We can sell those any stories that we like, that won’t change a thing. Meritocracy talks about social capitalism. I totally agree with that, but without funding and a massive campaign this idea will be floating around for decades without any real result. We need funding, but most capitalists are too busy screwing the poor and spending their money shopping. Why would they fund us? Of course we could try crowdfunding, but for that I think our influence is still too low. If we could find one billionaire to fund us we could make all of our efforts more professional. Every land needs a team of dedicated and paid politicians who can spend all their time lobbying, talking in public, researching, etc. so meritocracy gets out in the open.
I applaud you, Curtis, for spreading the word. But we need the use of mass media, like national ads and other media. Without it, we would probably stay what we are now, an obscure club that has potential and a good plan, but very few know of it. I know that everybody is doing their best, but look at facebook. Famous people and clubs, etc have it easy getting massive numbers coming. So, we need to become one of those clubs, but mouth to mouth advertising goes just too slow. We need funding. The best way is probably TV-ads and going to talk-shows. Let’s call Jimmy Fallon. :slight_smile:

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#5

I can say that i agree with everything you are saying. I just cannot help but feel frustrated with no direction, I also do not know if my mood and annoyance against silence is justified either. I know many have the same view and outlook that Meritocracy holds but what does that mean if we do not unite.

Whats the answer to How?? How can we grow? how can we reach the “tipping point”? How will eyes be opened? There is no billionaires on hand just yet :wink: But I mean, we have the knowledge on the subject, we have almost an unlimited number of resources. We have people that say they are willing to stand up. We even have an established online community - Meritocracy.

What can I be doing to best utilize the Now?

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#6

Personally I think we need to have popular people on our side, like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins or George Carlin on our side to spread the message and tell the audience there is a cure. Our party. Anonymus aint gonna cut it. We need numbers.

#8

I like what you are saying about getting people on our side but do you think we really need famous or popular people advocating for meritocracy in the meantime? Or do you mean in the future? With one “dominant” famous person advocating meritocracy i personally think that people would begin see meritocracy as their brain child. Just an idea or a different (well thought out) perspective. Sure people would follow but wouldn’t we begin to see response much like with what Russell Brand is doing, i’m just wondering if this would this be a benefit to us or not? I’m just throwing ideas out there, What do you think?

It may be a difficult task even coming into contact with someone like richard dawkins (to pick a name). Just thinking outloud here. In the mean time (whilst creating numbers). And using this line of thinking. Couldnt we possibly use material already published by of influence to attract numbers and draw parallels to show people what meritocracy is all about?? Would that work?

#9

First traffic in large numbers. Being a politician is hard when all your voters are on another planet.
We could start out by sticking stickers on well visited buildings to get a few “underground” types in, who feel a bit lost in this world and want to have a new direction. You never know who pops up.

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