Paradigm Shift II

Nobody asked but …

Can we bootstrap ourselves into another paradigm?  It says here I don’t think so.  With Rome, it took the Visigoths.  With the British Empire, it took Mahatma Gandhi.  With IBM, it took Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.  With FDR, it took the grim reaper.  With the camel’s back, it took a last straw.  Although internal forces can build to immense pressures, it nearly always takes an unexpected pressure from an external source.  Systems unaffected by external forces have tremendous internal forces for maintenance of the status quo.  Many people voted a certain way in recent elections because they wanted to get to a new paradigm.  They voted for candidates who would “drain the swamp.”  They voted for candidates who would work “from within the system” to cure it of its ills.  They voted for candidates who were going to be so unorthodox that they would be like Samson destroying the temple.  They voted for candidates who were going to be so pure of motive as to emulate Jesus driving the money-changers from the temple.  Nice try.  None of these elections will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

— Kilgore Forelle