The needs of the people aren’t that conflicting between ideologies that we should be at the brink of another civil war after almost 250 years of the potential refinement of our democratic process. If our government actually served to forward the best interests of the people, as our Constitution demands of it, we should, by now, be discussing much more trivial matters than perpetual war and the impending death of our species having solved al of the important issues.
The fact that we are at that brink and that those issues haven’t been solved should be an indictment of either the process, or ourselves. Perhaps both. No one ever thought that war was an effective method of resolving conflict, just like no one wants to die in some hell on earth as the result of our only planet rejecting us. We can then ask why such issues are so hard to resolve if no one agrees with the status quo. Has anyone ever agreed with the status quo as being the pinnacle of man’s potential?
Why are we arguing if infants should be separated from their parents and detained in harsh and impersonal cages when our greatest conflict at this point should be the shape and color of our street signs or what species of trees to plant in the neighborhood parks? The answer to that is quite obvious. It is because some people benefit to the extreme by our conflicts and have the resources to pay our elected officials far more than we ever could, or should. As a result, those politicians are forced to apply to the people for their jobs, but understand that it is not the people who will pay them or finance the very expensive re-election requirements.
The cowardly assumption that we should never call another “team” member on the mat to answer for poor performance or failure to deliver on promises is not how we build any other functioning group, whether it be business, social, or family. I find it difficult to believe that somewhere around 30% of our nation agrees with caging infants, or I would have packed it in and headed for greener pastures long ago. Ditto with Americans thinking that bombing civilians is a productive way to resolve conflict, especially when those are economic in nature and those responsible are never harmed.
When faced with such conflicting purposes and a government unresponsive to our wishes, even if we don’t adequately voice them to leaders on our “side”, there is some value is simply burning it all down to reset the game and design something better. Logic should tell us that the institutions that broke the system are highly unlikely to fix it unless we get radical in our choices and hold our own accountable. That has not proven possible with any success to date, so let it burn. You will never get any more than what you will settle for.
