The Groundswell Wins, Love Wins

Viral videos are best for punching through the noise--the awareness problem.

(P.139. Groundswell)

Last night, I saw a video from Youtube which was really touching and thought provoking. The video was about a social experiment, which was conducted to figure out the reaction of pedestrians towards homophobia.

Since social media has become so prevalent, its popularity can be used to push social movements, like with same sex marriage. No one can deny the fact that social media plays an essential role in advancing the process of thought evolution towards homosexuality. In other words, with the help of social media, people's acceptability towards homosexuality is unprecedentedly high. And now, for most people, the support of homosexual love can be regarded as a form of ideological emancipation to some extent. 

If you want to have a hot, and have people talking about how hot you are, then Facebook and Twitter are for you. (P.139. Groundswell)

Nowadays, almost all of the corporations have already tapped into  social media as a form of propaganda for its products or services, in order to build a harmonious relationship with the groundswell. If you want to stand out from all of the brands, the ability to create a buzz is essential. 

In order to express the support of basic civil liberties and freedom of expression for gays and lesbians, Coca-Cola was among 379 companies that filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage. In addition, Coca-Cola posted a picture on Facebook to show its stance in this whole "love wins" issue, which created a surprising buzz online.

Apparently, what Coca-Cola has received strong appreciations and applauses. People were talking about not only  Coca-Cola's impressive courage, but also its brand. That was exactly what Coca-Cola wanted to achieve. In fact, we all know, among those 379 companies, it is impossible that every company truly accepts the recognition of same-sex marriage; however, under the pressure of the groundswell, they have no choice but to choose what the majority of people believe in. Anyway, they can never go wrong with listening to the groundswell. 

The whole thing about homosexuals striving for their legal rights reminded me of an embarrassing news article I saw several days ago. The article was about how the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption denied receiving an adoption application from a lesbian couple in the U.S. What was even more surprising was the adoption center claimed a so called "traditional morality and customs", which considers homosexuality against social norms. 

As a typical Chinese person, I think I have every reason to speak up for the majority of people in China. One adoption center can't represent the whole country. Although it's true that China has a long way to abandon some outdated conceptions, it requires the whole country to work harder than you can image to achieve this. Luckily, as a member of the Millennial population, the younger generation is more open to accepting the ideology transformation, which makes the journey of ideology evolution much easier to pass through.

Overall, the whole book brought me lots of new viewpoints about the impact of the groundswell towards not only society, but also the fate of an organization, which I have never thought of before. Do you find the book useful for you as well?