SigmaTheZeta
Esteemed Citizen of ZV
Sometimes, when I try to talk about this, the Apostles of Cowardice tend to leap to the false conclusion that, by organizing, I mean a few loose cannons walking around with bullhorns and waving signs and thereby attracting more attention to the underground zoo community and getting more people dragged out of their homes and their animals destroyed. In fact, they seem to have the perception that I am actually intent on this happening to them, and I have even had accusations thrown against me.
Actually, what I really propose is kind of the opposite of what they are prejudiced to assume. Organizing our community means so much more than public acts. It really includes taking a position of moral leadership for young zoophiles that are only 19 years old, so they can learn a healthier self-concept of what it means to be a zoo. The truth is that, anytime you hear about a horrifying story of someone getting busted for doing something that even you, as a zoo, find to be something horrifying and to be something that perhaps ought to be a crime, there was a time when that person was 19 years old, just starting to become curious, and still was a person that had not finished growing up. By the time that person gets busted for doing something truly sick, it's probably too late to do much to change that person's mindset, but when that person is young, it is still very possible to start taking a position of moral leadership with that person.
Also, organization is really important for reining in the kinds of loose cannon advocates that could get us into deeper trouble. There are methods of advocacy that always backfire, but with these oppressive anti-zoo laws, you are inevitably going to get a lot of people that feel hurt and angry. These people need someone to try to talk to them before they can comprehend the reality that we are looking at. What we are looking at, right now, is a painfully slow generational change at best, and quite frankly, the most realistic thing that most of us can expect, within our lifetimes, is to make a few inroads among sub-groupings of people that are especially equipped to understand us. You will not make people's hurt over being rejected disappear, but you can try to focus those emotions on behaviors that just might help make you safer, rather than endangering you.
Our community got into trouble with society because our attempted emergence was really a disorganized clusterfuck, and we ended up looking pretty bad. Rampant animal brothels and other malfeasance came to be what people believed we stood for, and we didn't really have a plan for our emergence. We didn't really do much at all that showed that we had really done anything at all to think through our decision-making.
Let's spend a couple of generations getting ourselves genuinely coordinated, and let's spend some time slowly making inroads. Let's counsel people that want to be advocates on what methods of advocacy actually do anything good and what methods of advocacy really backfire every time. Let's act smarter and be better.
Organizing our community and attempting to practice moral leadership will ultimately keep you and your animals safer.
I realize that many people have a hostile view of activists and see us as a threat, but real activism and mature activism is based on soundly advised strategy, coordination, and planning. Real activism is really the opposite of letting people act like impulsive children. Real activism measures time in half-centuries and acts in terms of carefully coordinated five-year plans. Real activism is disciplined and patient. Real activism does not expect overnight miracles.
Furthermore, stop saying we are "nothing like" other communities that have rehabilitated their reputations. Zoos are not special. We are not unique. We are not uniquely persecuted. We are not going through anything that legions of minorities in the past have not gone through. It really constitutes a sort of narcissism to believe that we are somehow in uniquely terrible or uniquely hopeless conditions. It is a sort of victim-narcissism. When you start down that path of victim-narcissism, you end up losing your sense of empathy, and that really leads you into more trouble.
The truth is that it's the same shit, different generation. The Christians were never really ill-meaning individuals, for example. Most of them were chiefly interested in operating charities that benefited the poor and supported families and children. They didn't really want to hurt anybody. They just saw that children that their parents had done everything in their power to raise well had been turning to the "vice" of homosexuality, and they truly believed that malicious men were out there "turning" them and spreading their mental disease. All they really wanted to do was protect kids from evil men.
The Christians' moral crusade was conducted in the same exact spirit that the HSUS is conducting their own moral crusade.
However, look how things have changed over a half a century. The Christians have really turned around. If anything, they are practicing leadership in assisting the emancipation of LGBT, and countries that have Christian majorities tend to be the most gay-friendly countries on the face of the Earth. Many Christian organizations have become advocates. They didn't mean to cause so much damage to people's lives.
Stop assuming that us zoos are unique. Society has rules for how to deal with them effectively, just like a dog has rules for how to deal with it effectively, just like a horse has rules for how to deal with it effectively. If you get bitten for breaking the rules, then don't you dare beat the dog. If you get kicked for breaking the rules, then don't you dare beat the horse. Learn your lesson, and do better.
If we are going to avoid things getting even worse, which they can, we must come together, as an organized people, and start figuring out what those rules are, based on a clear understanding of the historical record and on accepted sociology. We need to organize and try to get our best and our brightest to understand that they are truly needed more than ever.
Actually, what I really propose is kind of the opposite of what they are prejudiced to assume. Organizing our community means so much more than public acts. It really includes taking a position of moral leadership for young zoophiles that are only 19 years old, so they can learn a healthier self-concept of what it means to be a zoo. The truth is that, anytime you hear about a horrifying story of someone getting busted for doing something that even you, as a zoo, find to be something horrifying and to be something that perhaps ought to be a crime, there was a time when that person was 19 years old, just starting to become curious, and still was a person that had not finished growing up. By the time that person gets busted for doing something truly sick, it's probably too late to do much to change that person's mindset, but when that person is young, it is still very possible to start taking a position of moral leadership with that person.
Also, organization is really important for reining in the kinds of loose cannon advocates that could get us into deeper trouble. There are methods of advocacy that always backfire, but with these oppressive anti-zoo laws, you are inevitably going to get a lot of people that feel hurt and angry. These people need someone to try to talk to them before they can comprehend the reality that we are looking at. What we are looking at, right now, is a painfully slow generational change at best, and quite frankly, the most realistic thing that most of us can expect, within our lifetimes, is to make a few inroads among sub-groupings of people that are especially equipped to understand us. You will not make people's hurt over being rejected disappear, but you can try to focus those emotions on behaviors that just might help make you safer, rather than endangering you.
Our community got into trouble with society because our attempted emergence was really a disorganized clusterfuck, and we ended up looking pretty bad. Rampant animal brothels and other malfeasance came to be what people believed we stood for, and we didn't really have a plan for our emergence. We didn't really do much at all that showed that we had really done anything at all to think through our decision-making.
Let's spend a couple of generations getting ourselves genuinely coordinated, and let's spend some time slowly making inroads. Let's counsel people that want to be advocates on what methods of advocacy actually do anything good and what methods of advocacy really backfire every time. Let's act smarter and be better.
Organizing our community and attempting to practice moral leadership will ultimately keep you and your animals safer.
I realize that many people have a hostile view of activists and see us as a threat, but real activism and mature activism is based on soundly advised strategy, coordination, and planning. Real activism is really the opposite of letting people act like impulsive children. Real activism measures time in half-centuries and acts in terms of carefully coordinated five-year plans. Real activism is disciplined and patient. Real activism does not expect overnight miracles.
Furthermore, stop saying we are "nothing like" other communities that have rehabilitated their reputations. Zoos are not special. We are not unique. We are not uniquely persecuted. We are not going through anything that legions of minorities in the past have not gone through. It really constitutes a sort of narcissism to believe that we are somehow in uniquely terrible or uniquely hopeless conditions. It is a sort of victim-narcissism. When you start down that path of victim-narcissism, you end up losing your sense of empathy, and that really leads you into more trouble.
The truth is that it's the same shit, different generation. The Christians were never really ill-meaning individuals, for example. Most of them were chiefly interested in operating charities that benefited the poor and supported families and children. They didn't really want to hurt anybody. They just saw that children that their parents had done everything in their power to raise well had been turning to the "vice" of homosexuality, and they truly believed that malicious men were out there "turning" them and spreading their mental disease. All they really wanted to do was protect kids from evil men.
The Christians' moral crusade was conducted in the same exact spirit that the HSUS is conducting their own moral crusade.
However, look how things have changed over a half a century. The Christians have really turned around. If anything, they are practicing leadership in assisting the emancipation of LGBT, and countries that have Christian majorities tend to be the most gay-friendly countries on the face of the Earth. Many Christian organizations have become advocates. They didn't mean to cause so much damage to people's lives.
Stop assuming that us zoos are unique. Society has rules for how to deal with them effectively, just like a dog has rules for how to deal with it effectively, just like a horse has rules for how to deal with it effectively. If you get bitten for breaking the rules, then don't you dare beat the dog. If you get kicked for breaking the rules, then don't you dare beat the horse. Learn your lesson, and do better.
If we are going to avoid things getting even worse, which they can, we must come together, as an organized people, and start figuring out what those rules are, based on a clear understanding of the historical record and on accepted sociology. We need to organize and try to get our best and our brightest to understand that they are truly needed more than ever.
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