Matthew's Journal

Perhaps I should have expected it. Matthew is unable to see that he might be wrong. Matthew is thoughlessly hurting people, and is going to ruin their weekends.

So what do I do? I'm fully willing to accept that I'm mistaken, that the best interests of the Society are served by what is being proposed [but the meat of the matter is not what this post is about]. Obviously, I think that I am right, that my considered opinion is correct; I am more than open to attempts to persuade me that I am wrong, that I have missed something.

But that's not what is happening. There are the predictable ad hominems about my past years on committees, the suggestion that because I've not turned up to much recently my opinion is less valid, and so on. There's a weak argument being used axiomatically that there really isn't anyone who wants the job, and that any attempt at the usual arm-twisting is immoral. Finally, and most difficult to deal with, there is the suggestion that I'm just being spiteful, or thoughtless, or trying to get at Kate. The fact that I have disagreed strongly and at some length with the actions of herself and the committee is seen as a direct attack on her. It isn't, but I fear that nothing I can say will make that apparant.

It's a problem I've seen in other committees I've been involved in - it's very difficult for people to disagree with what someone else has done and avoid having that person take it all as a personal attack. Usually people work through the issues, and can see things the other way in hindsight.

Pete evidently hopes that I'll be defeated at the AGM (which is not unlikely, given the committee will probably be a majority there), and that this will prove once and for all that my opinion is invalid, and should be ignored. The issue of the validity of minority views is an old standard of political theory, so I'll leave it alone now. I don't think me going to the AGM will achieve much - I can be villified a bit more, laughed at for being an anti-media dinosaur, and generally belittled as a passed irrelevance.

So, I am left to be the vocal minority trying to do what I think is right for the Society, and having to live with being vilified by people I consider my friends. But do remember, dear reader, that I bring this upon myself by not accepting the opinion of people who clearly know better than I.