Crazy Canuck

Anyone who tries to campaign for Schapelle Corby quickly discovers a depressing fact: people are being incredibly cruel to her. In some circles, baiting her mother has almost become a national sport. In this thread, I want to try to understand what is going on, and to explore strategies for dealing with it.


It’s not that difficult to understand why this is happening. There are three basic reasons for all this cruelty, and if we take the time to think about it, we can figure out how to deal with it.

1) She’s Not a Real Person
This is similar to what is called road rage. When people are isolated from each other in their cars, they can’t interact with other as human beings. They become aggressive and violent, and do things that would be unthinkable in a normal situation.
For these people, Schapelle isn’t a real person. She’s a remote caricature. Since they can’t meet her face to face, they can’t relate to her as a human being. To a certain extent, the same is true of her mother.

2) Blaming the Victim
The world is a very scary place. Bad things happen to good people all the time, and if we stopped to think about it, we wouldn’t be able to function. Blaming the victim is the oldest trick in the book.
A guy got cancer? He was probably a smoker.
A girl got raped? She was probably asking for it.
Schapelle got busted for drugs? She has to be guilty.
This allows us to ignore the dangers and get on with our lives. And since we are so much better and smarter than all those other people, we can buy those cigars, get drunk at that party, and book that all-expense paid vacation to Bali without another thought. After all, it can never happen to us.

3) Using the Victim
And there are the unhappy ones – the miserable souls that use other people’s misery to make themselves feel better about their own lives. I may not be rich and famous, but at least I’m not sitting in jail like that trailer-trash drug trafficker – LOSER! The great irony about this is that helping other people is the best way to feel better about yourself. They can’t – or won’t – realize this.

When we meet any of the above attitudes in these forums, we tend to lash out at the person and ban them. I wonder if a different approach would help. I would like to try asking an anti-Schapelle correspondent the following questions:

a) What do you think her life is like?
b) If you think she’s guilty, how much punishment do you think is necessary?
c) Would you be willing to forgive her and allow her to return home?

Part c) is the key. The minute someone who thinks she’s guilty is willing to consider forgiving her, we’ve got them. (And please don’t start telling me she’s innocent – that has nothing to do with this).

What do the rest of you think?

Crazy Canuck

possum

Well... that was a very interesting post cc and there are definitely a few points there that I'd agree on.

Point 2 is pretty spot on... and I think also a lot of people prefer to go with the flow and majority rules to avoid arguement when it comes to blaming the "victim"... Lindy Chamberlain is a prime example.

Food for thought

TRISH25

Yes certainly very interesting. You've spend a fair bit of time of this that's for sure.

admin

a) What do you think her life is like?

completely ****

b) If you think she’s guilty, how much punishment do you think is necessary?

shes innocent and as been punished enough

c) Would you be willing to forgive her and allow her to return home?

of course.

could i forgive the idiots responsible - never

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Crazy Canuck

Admin:

How do we change the way that the people of Australia think about her?
How do we change the way that the Indonesians think about her?
That's what this is all about.

Crazy Canuck

admin

I am not even sure it is possible anymore mate.

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possum

I get the feeling that apart from the supporters, noone gives Schapelle a second thought these days... Australia's too rapt up in the upcoming election and our leaders are certainly ignoring any questions that arise in regards to our fellow Aussies suffering in the pits of hell...

Crazy Canuck

I hope that you and Admin are just suffering from the Aussie version of the November blahs....and not something more serious.

Like I said back in October, you guys need a completely new strategy. Something innovative that can capture the attention of the Oz public.

CC

possum

Well CC... with our federal election now over (the November blahs sounds pretty close to the truth - ha ha) and a new Prime Minister elected...

perhaps a fresh new campaign in support of Schapelle might gain more notice and maybe even a happy result.

Our new PM - Mr Kevin Rudd - claimed that Australia has excellent relations with Indonesia in his victory speech... hopefully he can prove it.

Fingers crossed...

Crazy Canuck

A new prime minister isn't the only news.

A couple of days ago I got a very reluctant endorsement for my proposal from the Wolfman himself. Basically, they seem to realize that there seem to be no other options.

All I have to fiogure out now is exactly what to say, who to say it to, and how.

CC