Alice's Restaurant guy #3

Ancient wisdom from the 60's (although I grew up on this stuff)

Alice's Restaurant By Arlo Guthrie

For those not familiar with the 18 and a half minute song, there is a part about trying to not be accepted by the army draft by singing a bar of Alice's Restaurant to the Army Shrink which goes like this...

You know, if one person, just one person does it
they may think he's really sick and they won't take him.
And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
they may think they're both fagg*ts
and they won't take either of them.
And if three people do it, three, can you imagine,
three people walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant
and walking out. They may think it's an organization.
And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,
I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of
Alice's Restaurant and walking out.
And friends, they may think it's a movement.

Full lyrics on Arlo.net
http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/alices.shtml


One, two, three, fifty.

Its what Malcom Gladwell writes about in The Tipping Point (a quick, deep, inspiring book). How one person doing one thing suddenly blossoms into a movement through a natural process of interaction.

And this is also what Seth Godin's simple blog about a guy dancing alone becomes a "dance tribe." What is a "Dance tribe" you may ask. Well, you can see what trend forecasting, marketing incentives, and viral video blogging have in common with dancing at a concert. Follow the link below.

Watch how it becomes an UNSTOPPABLE movement. And the first three guys are forgotten!

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/06/guy-3.html



Seth talks about Guy #1 being important/CRAZY
and Guy #3 also being important, but more
that aguy #3 was the brave TREND SETTER.
After that, Seth says, they are all FOLLOWERS. Meaningless.

I agree more with Mr. Guthery. A group of fifty people is a condensed organized bubble of True Believers. A Movement. All the people in the Dance Tribe were already participating in the concert. If this were an experiment in Central Park and the central reason for gathering in the first place was to soak in the sun, be with friends, etc, and a Dance Tribe occured, I still believe that the Fiftieth person, although not so brave, still merits importance. As would the first Mosher in the middle going against the established trend.