I can only hope that Doug was kidding when he said this:
“Words are for saying things, not doing things.”
I’m going to omit all the obvious arguments that this is clever-sounding hogwash, an empty slogan that ironically contradicts itself, because Doug is smarter than I am and already knows them. Because of what he does and teaches, I don’t think Doug believes it either. Irony? Sarcasm? I don’t know. I’ll admit I couldn’t make it through the endless Yippie Manifesto it was attached to, so perhaps it’s some kind of joke too subtle for rubes like me.
But I will say I believe this to be not just a philosophically untenable position on its face, but one of the most dangerous statements I’ve seen come out of an educator’s mouth (or do Tweets come from beaks?) in a long time, representing a facile diminishing of one of our most potent and (sadly) too often untapped and untrained powers as human beings, cultural participants, and members of communities.
If you need an example, look to Washington. We have a President right now who would agree wholeheartedly with– and who lives out– this sentiment about sayin’ and doin’. Words are action… misunderestimate them at your peril.
[photo by babasteve]
“When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” –Jacob Riis
If there’s a line from the music and cultural punk themes of the 70s to the edupunk of today, it has to veer into the hacker ethos– and I’m not quite sure that it emerges distinct. When Jim and D’Arcy write about edupunk it sounds like eduhacking to my ears. DIY, unintended use, subversion, exposure, open, sharing– it’s hacking the richest possible sense. For me, the attraction lies not only in fighting the man and being subversive through alternative means, but also subverting the monolithic technologies from the inside and not forgetting all those people trapped in there.
I’m game. If I’m going to stay in this business, I’m ready for the tattoo. Subvert, disrupt, innovate… there’s a reason my card says “Disruptive Technologist.”
