I got a message on the way to look something up today on Wikipedia.
The site asked for a donation,
Which I made.
Not a lot.
but not nothing.
and they asked me to say "Why?"
So I told them.
And this is what I told them:
I was chatting with a friend about crowd-sourcing, and I mentioned that I sometimes worry about crowds getting out of control.
My friend said he had more confidence in the "wisdom of crowds."
This friend – who studies the philosophy of science (how we all agree on what's "real") – told me this great anecdote. He and his wife, a cognitive psychologist who studies human happiness, were at a hotel for a conference. Outside was a sculpture that was basically a giant clock: big hands on a pivot with numbers inlaid in the ground.
He saw it on the way in, and it had the correct time. Later, from their room, he watched people laughing, checking their watches, and setting the time. It took a little work; the arms were heavy, so the hands only moved with deliberate effort.
They went to dinner and, on the way, stopped to fix the time themselves, as it was a few minutes off. When they came back, it was a few minutes off again, but there was already some folks fixing it. Later that night, around 11 PM, my friend heard people outside laughing and having fun while adjusting the clock.
For the whole week, whenever they checked, that clock was never more than 10 or 15 minutes off (except in the wee hours, when the "crowd" was gone).
Wikipedia is exactly like that clock, and it perfectly captures both of their fields.
The Wikimedia Foundation built this incredible "sculpture" for all of us. But it only works because of a constant, crowd-sourced "attention to reality". And it's powered by the fact that people find a simple, pro-social joy in making it right. Without both, it would just be a static decoration, quickly becoming wrong and useless.
Who's the sort of person who looks at that clock every day, refers to it, perhaps relies on it, but never – NEVER – helps move the hands?
I may have my hunch, but I don't know.
Of one thing I am certain: I don't want to be that person.
I may not have the time to edit articles every day, but I can help maintain the platform. A donation is my way of helping to move the hands and keep the clock running for like others have done for me.
I'm not sharing this so you donate to Wikipedia. (though I won't discourage you)
I'm writing this to describe the dynamic of the folks paying attention to bargaining for a fair contract. They don't walk by and say "This a job" or "I paid my dues" and then leave it to others. And that's why the hands on any "clock" ever move.
If it's all about the money, the hands only move one way or the other because of Harvard and Securitas and then things wind up only as fair as Harvard or Securitas pay to have it. How fair do you think that is?
We, and a strong union, shouldn't leave that to be true.
And merely accepting terms is not the purpose of a union.
No one works for a union just because the pay is so great.
No one is on the Bargaining Committee for the free pizza.
People on the Bargaining Committee, and people like them, feel an obligation to each other, to all of us, and recognize what is fair and… not do nothing.
There is a time to be one of those folks.
Moving the hands to what is right.
The time is now.