(07-25-2010, 01:06 AM)kandrathe Wrote: It's not going to happen in Washington, or be done by pundits. It's probably going to need to be done by main street, and we're going to have to come together to first refuse to be led around like rival herds of lemmings.
I'm reminded of a story from the divisive days of the Quebec seperation referendum in Canada. A popular meme was, naturally, that the problems were being inflamed by politicians for their own interests, and that if only regular folk from around the country would get together and talk it over, the'd be able to come to an agreement.
I have no links, but from what I remember hearing, the CBC tried this. They got some regular folk. Everyone came to the table with their common sense and their lack of the self-interested bias that plagued their politicians. And, by the end of their discussion, they were every bit as deadlocked as the nation itself.
The moral of the story, at least to me, is that there is no "main street." There is no generally homogeneous mass of little guys, who are simply being led around. Solutions are tough - and I think Max Planck might have had the right of it in saying (in so many words) that you don't convince people, you wait for them to die. Cynical, but not entirely without merit.
-Jester