Chamblee54

PG found a link on facebook for something called the freak revolution manifesto. Things went well for the first 25 pages or so, until the inner Ethel came out. Lucy always had these great ideas, until she told Ethel about them. ” I don’t know Lucy“.
No doubt, there is room for improvement in the way we conduct our lives. The evidence is abundant. The FRM tells a tale of a control paradigm running the show, and proposes to replace it with a connect paradigm. PG has always thought cooperation works better than domination/submission. So far so good.
The devil is in the details. Change starts with the individual. The FRM has a few ideas about how the individual player can change to best “empower” itself. One of these notions is that the person should dump their friends that don’t agree with the revolution.
“Imagine sharing this manifesto with each of your friends. Would they roll their eyes and say “Those are some pretty big ideas, but it’ll never work”? Or would they be moved to tears, jump up and down excitedly, and ask “Where can I sign up?”
You need more of the up-and-down-jumpers in your life, and fewer of the eye-rollers. The eye-rollers are poisonous and will sap your energy and motivation. The up-and-down-jumpers will share their enthusiasm with you, you’ll share yours with them, and you’ll both help each other.
Don’t maintain friendships with eye-rollers because you think you can help them or fix them. You can help much more effectively when you’re buoyed up by encouragement than when you’re drained by cynicism. It’s difficult and painful to cut ties with friends who drain you, and it’s also scary to reach out and make new friends who support you, but it’s worth it.”
PG has never found it easy to make and keep friends. The idea of losing a friend because of insufficient revolutionary zeal is distressing. There is a saying among mass murderers, “ To make an omelet, you need to crack eggs“. Reading page 29 of the FRM made PG feel like an egg, hiding from the cook.
This business of kicking out friends sounds to PG like  the control paradigm. In looking for a solution, the FRM might be making a worse problem. While many of the ideas in this tract are valid, overall PG is listening to Ethel.