Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hplabsz!taylor
From: judy@mcgp1.UUCP (Judy Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Why can't WE change society?
Message-ID: <1271@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM>
Date: 28 Dec 87 23:37:52 GMT
Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM
Organization: McCaw Information Services, Seattle, WA
Lines: 21
Approved: taylor@hplabs

[Mark E. Smith lists three reasons why he feels people aren't interested 
in changing society, citing the lack of response to the USENET discussion 
on the creation of a human rights newsgroup; soc.human-rights]

I can think of 3 additional catagories of people who failed to vote for
soc.human-rights:

1. Those, like myself, who were not on the network yet when the vote was
   taken.

2. Those to whom human rights seems like too big an issue to be discussed
   in the depth it deserves in this type of forum. Sometimes the frustration
   of seeing something important covered superficially or trivialized by
   endless semantic arguments is enough to discourage participation.

3. Those who believe in human rights so deeply that they would tend to react 
   emotionally and take all the inevitable rancor personally.  There is so much 
   social ignorance and hatred in this world that one may be tempted to limit 
   one's exposure to what is absolutely necessary; or, to areas in which one's 
   potential to change or enlighten is worth the emotional toll.

Judy Johnson