OK-here it is. It's like we are passengers on a boat sailing down a river and for some time now over 80% of the passengers have realized that we are headed for a waterfall. The people rowing the boat know about the waterfall; the captain knows about the waterfall, yet, against the protest of the passengers, the boat is being piloted toward the waterfall. So the people elected a new captain, one who promised to turn the boat. The people are happy, except that the new captain has paused as he is about to accept the tiller. He is choosing many of the same rowers who have rowed the boat toward the falls supposedly because they know how to row.
We can hear the roar of the water. We can see the mists rise above the cataract. Let us take our place at the oarlocks, put our oars in the water and give way together. Speak. Write. Shout. Demand the boat be turned. Let us dip our blades deep and pull hard. Let us put our backs into it.
2 comments:
If I were that close to going over the falls, I'd want some experienced people on the oars, ones who knew what to do in a crisis, with a competent new captain to guide them in their efforts to turn that boat before it was too late.
Excellent! Well said and thank you. This is just what I am looking for, point and counter-point. I very truly hope that you are right. What I see, however, is the oars being handled by some of the same people who got us started toward the falls to begin with. I think there are better people out there, such as Nobel economist and Princton professor Paul Krugman.
In the end, though, I'm just enough of a control freak that, if I'm going over the falls, I want an oar in my hand.
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