Imagine we're all aboard a ship, and its sinking. What do we do?

Political Heretic

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Sat Apr-24-10 10:03 PM
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Imagine we're all aboard a ship, and its sinking. What do we do?

So imagine that we're all aboard a very big ocean liner, the biggest in the world perhaps. And that ship is taking on water. It's structurally unsound, and its sinking.

Now imagine that the officers and captains of this boat are divided into two factions. One faction has some very distinct ideas about how life on board our ocean liner should function. This faction wants to take certain passengers - based on the color of their skin or their sexuality - and lock them in their cabins, deny them the same freedoms that other passengers enjoy. This faction also wants to remove some of the chairs from the deck of the ship, and designate that the remaining chairs are exclusively reserved for "first class" passengers - those with the most money and/or influence. This faction wants to charge for those seats and restrict who can use them. These are a just a few things this faction of officers and captains wants for the ship.

On the other hand, the other faction opposes these ideas. This second faction believes that all passengers should be able to move freely around the ship without discrimination, and they also desire to add more seats to the deck open to a greater number of passengers, and so on. Clearly there are distinct differences between these two factions.

Under normal circumstances, if our ship wasn't sinking, I'd be very much aligned with the second faction that opposed oppressive measures. But we have a special circumstance that changes things a little bit. Our ship is sinking.

What's worse none of the officers or captains from either faction will acknowledge that our ship actually is sinking. Despite the gaping hole in the side of our hull, they continue to declare that "the fundamentals of our ship integrity are strong" and "we are the greatest ship in the history of the world!" Faction #1 tells us that our ship is in good shape, but we should remove the restrictions on engine output so that we can freely get where we're going faster. Faction #2 opposes this, and tells us that we need tougher restrictions on engine output and better procedures for navigational decisions so that we can "continue" to be safe.

Neither faction of debating officers and captains acknowledge that our ship is sinking. Meanwhile, members of these two factions take terms steering the helm of the ship. And no matter how is steering, the course is always the same - right through a field of dangerous icebergs, any one of which could further damage our ship beyond hope.

So here I am, as a passenger on this ship. Our ship is in the process of sinking. Under normal circumstances, I'd only be focused on supporting Faction #2's plans for the ship, because they seem more fair and equitable than Faction #1's. But the ship is sinking! Given the fact that the ship is sinking, its absurd that neither faction of officers or captains will even admit to the problem, let alone start taking critical emergency steps to address the crisis.

It seems then I'm left with few good options. If neither faction of officers and captains will address our sinking ship, and just pretend like we are not in a crisis where our very ship itself is at risk, then it seems like I must get in their face, and try to shake them out of this absurd delusion and demand that the address the crisis.

But that seems not to be working, and all the while we are taking on more water. If I was in this situation, as a passenger, what would I do? First of all, I certainly wouldn't be angry at anyone who is critical of both factions of officers, since both factions are choosing to ignore the crisis for their own purposes. Secondly, if the two factions are unwilling to help address the crisis, I'd have to do my best try and find passengers who will.

So I'd want to start showing passengers the hole in the hull and the fact that we are taking on water, and convince them that we must do something about it. No action is too extreme if it means saving our ship from sinking. I'd want to get enough people organized to confront these officers and demand that they turn the ship around. I'd want to tell crew members and engineers ordered by these factions to focus on everything else but our sinking ship that we were taking over and were going to star fixing our ship whether they liked it or not.

If officers refused to listen to our demands, then its time to replace those officers and captains - there are more passengers than there are officers. All other issues would be less important than the immediate saving of our sinking ship. If officers and captains continued to refuse to even admit that we are sinking, then it would be time for the passengers to relieve the officers and captains of duty.

We in a fight to save our very ship itself. That's what I believe. I get that some disagree. However that disagreement seems to fly in the face of a huge amount of facts already meticulously documented. And think about it for a second, if you really believed as I do - how would you possibly expect me to take any different position that I am taking?

I would like Democrats to be part of the solution. But I want a solution more than I want to just keep electing the same establishment Democrats at any cost. It really doesn't matter who wins as long as our ship is still sinking and no one is addressing it. We have to demand that Democrats stop playing footsie with wall street and stop caring more about the political calculus how how they can avoid doing anything "controversial" in order to win elections and start saving the fucking country from its demise. And if they are consistently unwilling to do that, the only choice we're left with - that I can see, is to stop supporting those who refuse to do so and support those who will. If there is no one who will, then WE need to step up to the plate.

If you want to challenge the logic of this, be my guest. But I think what you will find is that it all hinges on accepting the premise that we are losing America. If you accept that premise, then most of the rest of this logically follows. If you don't accept that premise then it won't.

But if you don't accept that premise, I respond that this is what I have on my side of the argument:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8187415