maellenkleth: (Columbia-icon)
Elane Imgoven ([personal profile] maellenkleth) wrote in [personal profile] solarbird 2010-02-08 11:34 pm (UTC)

I suppose that this all depends upon context. If the bad actor in question is someone within my close social milieu, then **yes**, quite agreed that engagement with the intention of fostering beneficial change is a better option, all other conditions being equal.

That especially obtains in the case of young people to whom I bear some duty of mentorship. There, I can imagine the possible future in which they rise to their own places of power and they deal more amenably and fairly with each other.

On the other hand, when dealing with strangers and passing acquaintances, there's the problem of limited resources, and a certain nagging sense on my part that even bothering to engage is somehow an enabling behaviour, where I risk being sucked into the dymnamic called "it's all about the man."

I'm really rather glad I missed yesterday's gladiatorial telethon. I probably actually had a better time at my Border Patrol interview than I'd have had sitting there in front of the teevee.

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