When I get to puzzling over the quandary of how to convince people that political change is necessary, I am reminded of a computer game I used to play. Lemmings was its name. (available through the Microsoft store. -ed.)
These cute little green headed characters would drop out of an entry point, and wander in a specific direction (Oddly enough, to the right. What is the significance of that?) until they met with certain doom. The player’s job was to save as many as possible from the doom they were marching towards, by converting the walkers to various other functions. In some of the later stages of the game, there just was no way to save all of them. In one specific instance, there is a cliff in front of a relentless stream of Lemmings, and you don’t have any way to stop them. You can stop enough of them to win the scenario, but only if you play it right. You, of course, would rather save them all, but it can’t be done. They walk over the cliff in spite of your best efforts.
That is where we are now, late in the game. Libertarians pointed out years ago that a 9-11 like attack was coming. It’s happened now.
The freedom ploy engaged in by the smugglers John Hancock & Samuel Adams was diverted. The empire that Lincoln was forced to create re-claiming the South for the Union reached its summit in the 50’s and now drops down into historical irrelevance again. FDR’s schemes are coming to their crisis points and must be reformed or scrapped. There is no evading the cliff in front of us, unless we take action. We have to convince enough people who can think for themselves that there is a problem, and that there is a workable solution. ‘Enough’ is a fluid number, based on what solution is used as a target. The rest will have to walk on over the cliff, in spite of us.
We all choose our own destiny, even if our choice is not to choose.
Postscript
I think the problem was the libertarian sales pitch. As in “give up all the benefits of society because freedom requires it.” Weirdly, very few people thought that was a good idea.
