I have very mixed feelings about this piece. On one hand, at times it gets close to warming my heart and making me feel good about. On the other hand, it elicits a feeling of contempt towards the delusional. To elaborate on the latter, Saunders talks about people of all kinds being members of this organisation. What kind of people is he referring to? Average people, everyday people, people’s people. Given my summarily negative thoughts about human nature, this thought experiment or hypothetical situation of everyone being nice/not mean for one day is simply an exercise in delusion. However what most irks me, to my very core, is the last paragraph:
“This is PRKA. To those who would oppose us, I would simply say: We are many. We are worldwide. We, in fact, outnumber “you. Though you are louder, though you create a momentary ripple on the water of life, we will endure, and prevail.
This paragraph makes many words come to mind; mediocrity, normality, banal, lazy, status quo, norm. Of course, I’m aware he means that in the sense that mean people or non-member will always be outnumbered by members, but I can’t help but think that a layer of his meaning, whether he is conscious of it or not, is simply an ode to normality. Next.