Friday 26 October 2007

Amnesty is starting to shit me

I had to walk from one end of town to the other last week to attend a meeting. The route took me past Town Hall, and hanging around out the front was the usual pack of rent seekers of some form or another. There is always at least one weird beard in sandals protesting about something or other, and there is no getting past the marauding hordes of "sign up for this group" happy-smiley people.

I wonder if the WWF and Greenpeace and all these other groups get into punch ups on the pavement over who owns the turf?

The annoying mob in question on the day I went past was Amnesty. There were four happy young souls, all dressed in identical orange T-shirts, trying to coerce my fellow pavement travellers into joining Amnesty.

The bloke I was with curtly brushed them off with a "we're late for a meeting" and they gave way. He told me later that his favourite line with them is, "Mate, I don't speak English". That confuses them so much, their brains seize up and it gives you a chance to escape.

I thought about this incident later and it really started to annoy me. If I want to join Amnesty, I'll go to their website and join. I don't need to be harangued on a street corner by muppets in orange shirts about why it is such a good thing for me to join. If I feel strongly about what they are doing, I'll get on board. If I don't feel strongly about it, I have no wish to get involved.

I just wish these fuckers would get out of my face. I can't stand their smug, moral superiority. "We're better than you because we've joined Amnesty, which runs noble campaigns all around the world. Nah nah nah."

Well you can take your smug moral superiority and shove it. I don't care. So you wrote a letter to some nasty Burmese general - so what? You know what I'd do if I was a Burmese general getting those letters? I'd wipe my bum with them - and then send them back.

The moment an organisation sends paid spruikers out onto the streets in order to drum up membership, you can be sure that it has lost its moral compass.

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