Re: There is more to our lives than loving girls

If everyone believed that accomplishing positive change was merely pie-in-the-sky, then we wouldn't have organizations like B4U-Act. That is proof that activism is not futile. As progressive activist Glenn Greenwald noted, change is incremental, it doesn't occur all at once. It can appear that activism is doing no good for several years, but as time passes, it can then become clear that change is occurring little by little, and that the work we do is affecting society on more levels than we imagined. We have to learn not to expect too much at once, or to become discouraged because a few years of activism doesn't yield sweeping changes in the world. We may have to carefully measure what subjects we discuss bit by bit, but even incremental changes add up, and everything must occur in steps. We have lost too many activists in the past because they didn't see major change occurring within just a few years, and they can't deal with setbacks, so they convinced themselves that nothing was ever going to change and promptly left the movement, leaving it much poorer as a result.

Is putting the love you have for a girl above everything else the epitome of true love? I think that depends on what you are sacrificing for her. Should a brain surgeon give up his occupation simply because his wife demands that he does? Would that be a selfless measure of his love for her if he abandoned such an important vocation because the one who loved him disliked the small number of hours she got to see him as a result? I think there is always going to be more to the world than only what we see within the limited scope of our own lives, and I think true love has to exist not simply for one person, but also for humanity as a whole. I think my love for my girlfriend and my love for humanity in general--as well as the many causes I espouse--compliment and enhance each other, and make each one stronger and mutually benificial than if they would be isolated and on their own, without any of the others. I do not believe that the big picture ever has to be ignored in order to make the small one more gratifying, because in my personal experience the love I have for one person or group is enchanced by the love I have for others, including a cause, and I would never be fulfilled completely if I had to give up one for the other. If I gave up everything that was important to me, or gave up on humanity, and focused only upon my love for my girlfriend, then I would likely not be the same passionate person that she fell in love with. These are things we need to consider.

I also believe that fighting to emancipate all girls from the current hysteria that infantalizes them does far more good in the long run than simply making one girl happy at a time, while ignoring the many reasons why the girl is unhappy in the first place. If we can make the life of even one girl more pleasant, then wonderful; but she is never going to be all there is to the world, and I believe that it's important for GLers to help improve the lot of all girls in the world to the best of their ability, and not limit this to the relatively few girls we can ever hope to know personally.