Advocacy….

Wikipedia’s Definition of Advocacy

Noun

advocacy (plural advocacies)

Wikipedia has an article on:

Advocacy

1. the profession of an advocate
2. the act of arguing in favour of, or supporting something
3. the practice of supporting someone to make their voice heard

My Definition:

Advocacy is something you are “for” or “against”. It is a confusing word because while a person is or thinks of their self as an “advocate”, it really boils down to whether they have an opinion of something or they don’t……and whether they put any action into it, for example: speaking about something. To me, that is what means being an Advocate. Speaking is an ‘action’, it is a thing being done. So is writing. In the one sense, everyone is an advocate of something or another…..whether they are an advocate for something or against something is another matter……there is ‘no sitting on the fence for an advocate’. Someone sitting on the fence is not an advocate, and that is fine, too.

In another sense, the larger context of being an advocate means coming together with a group of people for a specific purpose or sets of purposes to affect change within the community or society as a whole. People get paid to be an advocate. Some people choose to be an Advocate as a career goal. I am not that type of advocate, however, like many people, i am interested in change in some things of the world. I think it is important that if one does think as an advocate if and when an insight comes to you…..to at least speak about it. So, in my own little world, that’s what i do from time to time, when i have the time. The following list below are some of the things that come to mind that….when it comes down to defining the word “advocate or Advocate”, i have advocated “for or against”. Just for fun maybe, this list will be updated from time to time, and when time allows a brief few words or words written about one of the things in the list.

It used to be that in the early 60’s there was no such word as an advocate, then in the latter 60’s the word appeared. Discussions amongst ourselves argued for and against the term advocate. On the one side such as my definition above where the individual was an advocate for something it was apparent that every person when they had an opinion could be said to an advocate for something. The further ‘inclusion’ of the term advocate being a professional person….which meant at that time that the professional person had a better ‘opinion’…..as if they were an expert….and therefore their ‘professional’ opinion outweighed another person’s opinion…. because they were ‘an expert’. Most of us who thought that it did not matter whether the ‘expert’ was an “advocate” or not and that the “expert’s” opinion should not outweigh the opinion of others. In other words a person did not have to become a professional to become an expert just to get an opinion. An opinion could be had by anyone who did ‘think’ about something or had an intuitive insight and therefore did not need to have a ‘professional’ training. We sensed there was a danger of having some person or some people’s opinion outweighed and therefore did not agree with the inclusion that an advocate was regarded as the only or primary source of opinion that counted, especially considering and knowing that the “professional advocate” was getting paid. Obviously the person or ‘company’ paying the professional advocate could have any type of opinion advocated for. The old saying money can buy everything was a real foreseable danger where outside opinion now overruled good common sense and possibly resulting in creating or making problems in the local community…to an nth or infinite degree. Not a good idea this advocate business, we thought. Not a good idea at all.

Sure enough, as we have seen ten, twenty, and thirty years later till now, we have all sorts of so-called Public Advocates……but “who” is paying them? Where is the money coming from? This “business” of hiring a so called “expert” has gotten us all in a pile of trouble. The so called “scientific expert”, the so called “scientific advocate” ……for goodness sakes, now we have the GMO’s “advocates”, the so called professional expert opinion where GMO’s because of their ‘professional opinion’ that GMO’s are safe, harmless and “good” to eat……..well, who is paying them? These “advocates”. Sorry, our intuition about this advocate issue as to whether it is a good thing or not was definitely correct…..and so were our warnings about such ‘professional opinion’. So…..that’s why i still hold that what we should do: “Is get rid of the advocate….the professional advocate….and put the original meaning of it back to where it was, e.g. a newspaper calls itself: The Advocate……and reports all news, honestly, truthfully…….and includes the good common sense.” That’s good as it was and is where i also stand. Best thing to do is get rid of the whole entourage of the “Advocate”, the Professional Advocate, The “Expert”, The Advocate.

• Titles with a • indicates “Advocacy For….”

* Titles with a * indicates “Advocacy Against”

• Banyan Bookstore – since 1972
• The Naam Restaurant – since 1972
• Nature’s Path (formerly, originally Lifestream Natural Foods) – since 1972
• Organic Food – since 1972
• Tibetan Buddhist Meditation – since 1972
• Alternative Media – since 1972
• * Chlorinated and Fluoridated Water – since 1972
• * Vaccinations – since 1972
• * Eugenics – since 1972
• * Fascist Corporatism – since 1972
• Solar Energy – since 1973
• Medicinal Herbology – since 1974
• Traditional Chinese Medicine – since 1974
• Naturopathic Medicine – since 1974
• Canadian Health Food Association – since 1974
• Alternative Medicine – since 1974
• Dominion Herbal College – since 1974
• Tai Chi – Yang Style – since 1974
• * Pharmaceutical Medicine – since 1974
• Cosmic Awareness Magazine Publications – since 1974
• Applied Kinesiology {Muscle Testing} – since 1976
• Touch for Health – since 1981
• Vegetarian Diet – since 1982
• Ayurvedic Medicine – since 1984
• * Implementation of FTA {Federal Trade Agreement} – since 1984
• * Implementation of GST – since 1988
• Body Alignment Technique – since 1990
• * Obstruction of Justice Law – since 1992
• * Codex Alimentarius Commission Law – since 1994
• * Implementation of NAFTA {North American Free Trade Agreement} – since 1995
• * GMO Foods and Non Labelling of GMO Foods – since 1996
• * Labeling of Organic Foods – since 1996
• Coast to Coast AM Radio – since 1996
• * Formation of Al-Quieda – since 1998
• * Patriot Act of 2001 – since 2001
• Alex Jones’ Infowars.com – since 2005
• * NDAA Act of 2012 {National Defense Authorization Act} – since 2012
• * Agenda 21 – since 2013