"If there is a positive professional, or journalistic perspective or solution you would like to share we welcome it..."
- IASC's response to my "Boycott everyone and everything" piece [below]...
I love that. "Professional, journalistic perspective". That one killed me! Hey, guys?! I'm a skater, for pete's sakes. I don't do "professional" and "journalistic" nearly as well as I do "blunt", "brutal", and "honest".
I've gotta give IASC credit on one front, though: Even when they're faced with an irate, cuss-filled tirade, they do seem to always remain relatively cool, calm, and collected. Now, if only they could apply this sort of savvy diplomacy to their actual "initiatives", they'd probably be all set...
Thing is, I can spot a bluff when I see it. So, I did the entirely unexpected: I actually responded with a totally cuss-free, uber-positive suggestion.
So, what was my suggestion?! Easy: I told them that maybe, it might be a good idea with future initiatives, to run these things by the "naysayer community", and see what sorts of naysaying you get out of them. That way, you can account for that before you put out an initiative. So that you end up with "initiatives" that are a hell of a lot harder to "naysay". Pretty simple stuff, isn't it...? I thought so.
Example: The "Local Skateshop Day" initiative. If they'd bothered to ask almost anybody on the planet (doesn't even have to be me, by the way... just pick any skater, and fire away) where the "problems" might be found... surely, somebody would have said, "Well, what about Zumiez?! Core shops really hate those guys, yet you guys totally support 'em all the time...!" And that is, a very real problem. That almost anybody can spot from a mile away. Except, apparently, IASC.
I pointed out that even here at The Solitary Life... and, a bit more so with The Collective... I regularly seek out, and reach out to "dissenters". In layman's terms: Dudes that don't agree with me. I take the time to listen to these blokes, because Lord knows that I'm not any sort of walking genius or anything, either. I screw up, just like anybody else. Being the jerk that I am, I actually had to learn this one the hard way. It wasn't easy... but these days, I am wise enough to lean on people to tell me when I'm fully blowing it. Not because they dislike me or anything. But because they want me to stop mucking everything up all the time, and find some measure of "success". They care. So, they're naturally pretty honest with me. And, I actually appreciate that. At the very least, I can totally respect it.
Maybe IASC could learn to appreciate dissent, too. It would only serve them well to do so.
In the meantime, there's a ton of seriously cool companies out there in skateboarding right now, that actually reflect "skateboarding" in a far more accurate light. You know, all those skateboard companies that are run by actual skaters...? Yeah, those guys rock. So we'll just keep on supporting them, instead.
