[Leica] Politics, political science, cameras, and computers

[Brian Reid <reid@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>]

I draw a sharp distinction between politics and political science. It 
really is possible to discuss one without discussing the other.

When you discuss political science, you are talking about technique and 
principle.
When you are talking politics, you are trying to change someone's mind, or 
possibly change your own mind by belittling other people.

There are many places where you can go to use words to try to change 
people's minds, but this is a photography forum. Yes, photography is 
inherently political, but the details of those politics belong somewhere 
else. The political-science principles can stay here. I think one of the 
reasons that the Leica is such an important object is that it was for years 
the tool of choice of people who tried to change people's opinions using 
photographs.

You will note that, in the aftermath of Minamata, W. Eugene Smith did not 
say "The Chisso company is a bunch of right-wing capitalist pigs". Instead 
he took pictures of people and got the world to look at them. When Antonin 
Novy wanted to show the world about the evils of communism in Prague, he 
did not say "filthy left-wing commie bastards", he said "look at these 
pictures".

Bad people can take good pictures. Good people can take bad pictures. 
Neither you nor I is qualified to judge who is a good person and who is a 
bad person. We can judge "I do not like that person", but our response 
should be to ignore him and not to attack him.

Good and kind people can be very wrong about photographic technology, and 
mean and nasty people can be very right about photographic technology. As 
much as possible, I want the LUG to take the high road, to focus on 
photography as something that people do, for reasons that they keep to 
themselves. If you ever saw the movie "Chariots of Fire", think about it. 
Every one of the runners in that movie was running for some reason that was 
meaningful to him; what they had in common was that they all competed for, 
and in, the Olympics. Every photographer has his own reasons for taking 
pictures, and I think those reasons should  be no more public than 
necessary. And it is absolutely inappropriate to criticize another's 
reasons for taking pictures.

If the Leica Users Group were perfect, we would pay no attention to our 
feelings about whether people were good or bad, mean or kind, and would 
look at the pictures that they had to show us and listen to what they had 
to say about the production of those pictures.

When others fail to meet your standards of behavior, it really is possible 
to ignore them. If you are worried about what LUG listmembers think about 
you, remember that they have made up their minds based on every message you 
have ever sent, and not on the basis of what you say this time to defend 
yourself. If people think you are a jerk, then your rushing to defend 
yourself will merely solidify their feelings that you are a jerk, rather 
than change their minds.

Take the high road. Talk about photography, the reasons for photography, 
the thinging and feeling and principles behind photographs, not the 
character of other LUG members or about global politics. It's fine to talk 
about political principle, but it's not fine to try to change others' 
political principles using email messages. Go do that somewhere else. Your 
own home is a very fine place to discuss religion and politics. So is your 
own church and your own saloon.

Brian Reid
LUG saloonkeeper