DennisDemori.com

Some food for thought courtesy of various quotes I’ve found on the web this week, which all pretty much have the same idea:

Now, in 2010, we have more resources at our disposal than at any other time in history to create positive changes culturally, economically, politically, etc. The internet has become a sounding board for people to voice their opinions. Occasionally, it has been used as a tool to gather individuals for local, all the way up to global causes, but we’re still at the early stages of harnessing the collective strength of online communities.

Here’s a MLK quote I found on Tumblr via The Consumerologist

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

A quote from the blog Stuff White People Like in a post about the recent Conan O’Brien hoopla:

“But no, white people will solve this problem the way that they solved the election crisis in Iran – through Facebook and Twitter status updates. In 2009, millions of white people took 35 seconds to turn their twitter profiles green, and consequently sent a very powerful message to the leaders of Iran. Their message was that they wanted their friends to know that they would stop at nothing to ensure freedom and democracy for the Iranian people. Thanks in large part to that effort Iran is now completely democratic. With that issue settled, white people are launching a similar campaign for Conan that is sure to have similar results…

For you see, while white people will fiercely support Conan O’Brien in any public forum, they always fail to support him in the only way that actually helps – by watching his show.”

That above quote, of course, is meant to be funny (it is), but it’s also very true. My point isn’t to say that people changing their avatars, status updates and retweeting are useless (these activities generate a great deal of awareness). My point is that we need to do more.

3rd quote, from Umair Haque (emphasis mine):

“By design. 20th Century organizations were built to have strategic intent. The point of a strategic intent is merely to best rivals. That’s the opposite of an ambition: it’s just combat. Yesterday’s organizations were missing the burning desire to improve on yesterday in their very DNA. That’s what reduced them to passionless machines — and it’s what ultimately made our lives smaller, our economies less vibrant, and our societies poorer.”

Last quote, from superamit on Tumblr:

“Do something compelling. There’s a trillion people writing blogs that need something to write about. There are magazines hungry for content. There are hundreds of thousands of people bored on the internet wanting something to look at or do. For the most part, people have exceedingly low standards on the internet. But, I think people are hungry for better. Make something better. People will notice.”