In the long run, people whose reputation, notoriety and supposed importance come from them ranting and screaming against a certain situation, or a certain regime or organization, don’t really matter. An agenda that is purely reactionary, happening in a certain time and place as a react to a certain problem or injustice–whether real or imagined–is inherently temporary. When the problem ends, or changes, the reactionary agenda evaporates. What matters long term are the ideas and principles that, in all times and places, push away from slavery and oppression, and toward freedom.
To put it another way, the path that leads to a voluntary, stateless, peaceful and prosperous society does not depend upon what is on the front page of the newspaper today, or this week, or this year. It depends upon the overall mentality and philosophy of the people. And those who get distracted from the underlying concepts of self-ownership and non-aggression–and especially those who get tricked into betraying those concepts–by whatever current events or stories have them scared at the moment, are not the people who are going to make things better in the long run.
