I actually have had a thought!

I just left the blog of a long time activist who recently was pleading for help from friends and readers.  It seems she had lost her home, had no income, no place to live, no prospects.  Of course many folks joined together to help.

Today I read that she just returned from a conference in New York.

Now, I'm not an activist.  I am in dire straits financially.  Recently my partner asked folks she knows for help.  People responded.  Given our situation I do not see how I could possibly go anywhere for a conference.  Currently, using up precious resources in that way seems obscene to me.  If I can afford to do that, my situation really isn't that bad.  But, I am not quite that entitled. 

I could not afford to help that person.  Now, I'm happy I didn't.  If I had, I would now feel I'd been "had".

I guess I've not yet come to really understand how "activism" has become a "career choice".  Both left and right wing "activists" seem to see their job of "saving the world" as a "career"  --  it's now a vocation, as opposed to an avocation done to enlighten folks, or at least sway them to your way of thinking   ----   in many cases, doing their thinking for them.

This is very different from the post of "public intellectual", or "public conscience"  --  they usually have a day job.  These folks stake out a position, publicize it, and hope the coin rolls in.  They can be anti something. or pro something, but it seems they do it mostly for money, like the patent medicine hawkers of old.  Then again we still have our Dr. Oz.

No matter the position, the field, the stance, it seems to be all about the money.

In truth, we have no shame.