One of the big weaknesses of WN is a lot of turnover. People come and go. Five years is about the limit. They burn out on rage. They can’t sustain it. You can’t go around angry all the time. The Rage-Aholics disappear after 5 years, and generally don’t accomplish much of anything real in those 5 years, because it takes much longer to have real accomplishments.
I don’t want you guys to burn out on impotent rage. Failing to move beyond impotent rage leads to one of three outcomes — drop out, go on a violent rampage/get in trouble with the law, and/or turn traitor. Most just drop out, thank heavens. The other two options are horrible.
Why the impotent rage? Because the world isn’t doing what the Missionaries want it to do, and the Missionaries can’t accept that. The Rage-Aholics are frustrated Missionaries.
WN 2.0 are Cultural Anthropologists. We don’t preach or proselytize. We learn about our subjects, and then we can use this knowledge to reflect it back to them, so when we talk to people, it’s as though our voice is speaking their own thoughts. People love when you do that for them/to them.
Our “converts” should not even know they were converted.
There are two kinds of people who go out to meet foreign people; Missionaries and Anthropologists. Missionaries seek to mold everyone to their ideal, and not just to get them saying “Jesus,” but often radically change a native, primitive culture to dress in Western clothes, use modern devices, and give up their old ways. Anthropologists, in stark contrast, study the native people and want to change as little as possible about them. They fear the “observer effect” of their presence, and would ideally be flies on the wall watching them, or perhaps via hidden cameras.
The CIA used to use missionaries; these days they prefer anthropologists.
Missionaries have answers.
Anthropologists have questions.
Missionaries want to be seen.
Anthropologists want to blend in.
Missionaries teach the natives to speak English.
Anthropologists learn the native language and don’t want their subjects to learn English.
Missionaries teach, preach, proselytize and convert.
Anthropologists learn, write about what they are learning, and develop a body of work about the subject people, so they know more about those people, than the people themselves.
We do have a ton of turnover.
WNs with over 5-7 years experienced are RARE. Our business can be very frustrating. The rate of change is slow, like towing an iceberg. It is hard to work for an objective that one will never see within one’s lifetime.