I sent this to CivicAction@Meetup.com and to the Austin #Resist when I received a Meetup request from them. I also sent it to the organizers of the groups
that I belonged to, most of them for computer users.
I am cutting my access to all of my Meetup groups and to
Meetup.com as of February 28, 2017, in response to a corporate decision by
Meetup to support the Resist political action collectives.
“We decided
that we wanted to do more to support these efforts so we created a network of
1,000 #Resist Meetup groups with a few special characteristics.” --
https://www.meetup.com/help/article/2736376/
While I am sympathetic to many of the social justice causes
pursued by Resist, I must object to Meetup’s delivering a special value to
them. My comrades on the right wing also have advanced the cause of freedom.
Their methods and their successes do not grab headlines. It is a matter of culture.
 |
| What are the politics of pasta? |
As collectivists, my progressive comrades form strong
groups, and groups are easy to see. They grab headlines when they grab other
people’s property. But that property had to be created first. The exceptionally
great wealth of America was the work of millions of individuals who mostly
minded their own business, making their own lives as best they knew how by the
standards they chose according to their personal values. That does not make the
home pages of news media – unless it is to “doodle” in celebrating the
historical birthday of a dead writer, musician, inventor, or scientist.
Meetup.com is a tool for those conservatives, libertarians,
and Objectivists who advance the ethics and politics of individualism. By creating new, no-cost platforms for
one political group, Meetup.com of necessity excludes those of other political
beliefs – and those groups with no political agenda. It is also a platform for
millions of individuals who share personal – sometimes peculiar – interests of
their own, far removed from politics. And that speaks to a fundamental problem
with progressive causes.
It is critical that this be understood. Dr. Martin Luther
King looked forward to a future in which each person is judged by the content
of their character. But character
is an attribute of a person, not of a group.
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| The Pursuit of Happiness is selfish. |
Choosing not to do business with someone because they are
not from your ethnic, social, gender, class, or religious group is
irrational. But freedom of
association is a fundamental political right. While my collectivist comrades
try to eliminate discrimination by engaging the power of the state, my friends
on the right go to the root of the problem: lack of character.
If the owners of Meetup.com want to end social injustice, they
should empower their customers who meet to build character. But that would mean
creating a 1000 special groups for some religions or some philosophies in
preference to others. And there is
no way to parse that, because, after all, even karate builds character.
Therefore, I will delete my Meetup account and switch to
some other service or set of services, such as Google Groups, which, in fact,
evolved from the age-old Usenet maillists. Ultimately, no one needs Meetup.com. That is something to
keep in mind.
Michael E. Marotta
