One Voter At a Time .... That is How.
In a recent article LW, one of JU thoughtful Bloggers, got so frustrated with the state of affairs in our nation, the USA, to the point of calling for a Revolution to change things to the better and get us out of this miserable state in which we find ourselves neck-deep.
I reached that same point of frustration looooong time ago..... About 40 years ago to be exact. I wanted to do the same thing. A Revolution. With that I SHALL change everything. Everything. Here and in the world. Seriously.
Unfortunately, I am an Engineer. And if you don’t already know what that means, I really can’t help you. What is more unfortunate is that I am a Chemical Engineer. And if you are not one, don't tell me you know what that means. You will never know . And I am not kidding ( a prominent professor of Chemical Engineering once said: if you ask any person in the street what does an Engineer Do? you will never get the correct answer. If you ask any Engineer what does a Chemical Engineer Do? you will never get the correct answer .... i discovered that he was absolutely right) . We do things in a way that seems absurd not only to normal people but to other types of engineers as well. Master Plans, designs, details, specifics, logic, laws (natural and legal), client desires, client resources, efficiency, economy, common sense, smoothly working systems, safely-operating systems, elegance, harmony, consistency, ...etc. But who needs that??? That is a headache producing, frustration inducing and annoying way of doing things.
As such, I started working out the Plans, and the details and specifics and logic and legal foundation for this Revolution of mine.
When I got to the "Client Desires" I was shocked. My client in this Revolution is the People. What do the people want? I asked myself. I know what they "Should" want. but that is just me. What do they Really want so I can design this Revolution of mine.
As any good Engineer would do, I started asking people around me, "How do you think a good government should look like and what should it Do. In details. No general glorious slogans please?" And to my utter shock, I found out what I still find everywhere including here on JU. People want everything on the condition that they pay nothing. what is more is this: “Everything” for a group of people is the opposite of the Everything of other group of people and both are different from the Everything of a third group of people and so on and on and on.
In actual engineering jobs, if your client is like that your ONLY position should be this: Tell the client's people to get their act together and first decide what they want and they should call you back when that is achieved. The rule is: don’t you ever start unless The Client knows exactly what they want. Period. No exception. If they need help doing that, provide it if you can but that is another project. Finish that first then start the original one after they agree on what they want
Well, the Clients of that Revolution of mine are the People of the country. And based on what I found I decided I should postpone this Revolution until they get their act together.
In the meantime, I said to myself, let's see what kind of resources my Client (the people) has. I need good honest-to-God incorruptible, selfless, open-minded, tolerant, humble, looking-for-each-other-type people. That is what I need for that Revolution of mine.
A second shock swept through my spine up to my brain. That woke me up and made me smell the coffee. The people, as a single group, don’t know what they want. And assuming that they can get together and figure that out, they don’t have enough people who can give them what they want.
That made me remember the time-honored principle: "The Thousand mile Trip Starts with a Step". That revolution of mine must start by revolutionizing the people themselves .... one by one until we have enough of them. And since they say that in any organization (and any country is just a large organization) almost 20% of the people do 80% of the work I figured that the minimum number of people required for this Revolution of mine is 10% of the American People. The Other 10% will learn on the job…. I said to my self.
With these two discoveries I decided to wait till there is enough Americans who can agree on what the country should be like and at the SAME time have at least most of the above mentioned qualities. When “That” happens I will revisit this idea of a Revolution.
Over the years since then, I discovered another thing: When we get that many Americans that way, the Revolution would already have been happening. No more action would be necessary. The objectives would already have been achieved.
Going back to LW's hope for a revolution to change our government, I can only say our government, and our country, will change when at least 30 million Americans can agree on what is best for the country as a whole. At the same time those same Americans must possess most of the qualities mentioned above.
As it stands now we can’t agree on anything of importance. Even within the limited community of JU, look how uncompromising most of the views here. How each "Opinionator" blindly believes that their opinion and theirs alone are the absolute best. How inconsistent their opinions are depending on the moment and the circumstances. How they disregard every logical argument and reason. How they defend the indefensible. How they disregard the "Other" which is anyone who disagrees with them. How they disregard the consequences of their actions and opinions regardless of who suffers or what is being destroyed.
Until we, individually, change ourselves to match the required qualities nothing will ever change. The revolutionary people will be like the current ones unless they come from a changed people with consistent values and objectives and possess the moral integrity that is required to achieve those objectives.
How do we achieve that change? That needs a separate and hopefully shorter article.