Cav's Place

Of course, “The People” from across the pond had already provided even more ample evidence of it, pretty much ensuring that, as the recent developments and statements, which I’m not going to comment on in what’s just a rushed post, make even more abundantly clear, there’s no hope left for any of us. But a week ago it was once again the turn of the Swiss voters to prove that “The People” can always be trusted to make the wrong choice, overwhelmingly rejecting a constitutional amendment requiring the Swiss economy to respect planetary boundaries, the opponents stating that environmental concerns shouldn’t significantly impact the standard of living and that the ten-year deadline included in the initiative was unrealistic… Even though ten years from now would be at least eleven years too late.
But, of course, this is just one news piece that’s easy to point to, the rule being proven with nearly every opportunity, all over the world and throughout history, including just these days and here or elsewhere in Europe, or at various other points by just those Swiss voters, including on other environmental initiatives. So I’ll just go back to those two quotes yet again: “The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn’t that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.” and “That does seem to be the rule, doesn’t it? Analyze the problem, choose whichever strategy makes least sense and then do it.”
The question is how can the right thing ever get done if “The People” keep making the wrong choices and those who, by whatever means, end up in positions of authority are those who want them, which pretty much by definition means that they’re unsuited for them because they’ll generally use that authority for their own gain. The only way seems to be to hand power to those who don’t actually want it, but who would use it to force humankind in the right direction… But will there ever be even a snowflake’s chance in Hell of that happening? And, if it somehow would, would the people who would want to steer humanity in that right direction actually use that power to do so, by whatever means necessary, obviously going against the will of both the rich and powerful and “The People”? Because that’s another important side of the problem, those who would want the right things to get done refusing to employ the methods necessary for that to happen while the others have no such qualms.