Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary--the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there's a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab.
It's a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it's going right by you, that it's left you altogether. But if you're doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go.
So I said, call me Trim Tab.
--Buckminster Fuller
I would like to make a couple of adjustments to what some very thoughtful people have been offering in an effort to change the course of our ship of state. Most have pointed out correctly that this ship we're on is headed directly into the rocks. If we don't change course it will crash and sink and the ship will be lost along with its crew and cargo. We need to change course but trying to communicate with the captain and his senior officers has proved nearly impossible and very inefficient. But we need to do something quickly or there will not be time enough to move this ship before it comes to a dreadful end:
1.
There are those who
say that it is not the job of visionaries to seek leadership
positions. I say this idea is pure nonsense. What we
have today is a world turned upside down with our leaders being
selected on the basis of their fame or wealth rather than for their
wisdom and character. The best way to communicate with our
leaders is not to spend our energies trying to tell them what we
want or need, which they have demonstrated by their actions are
totally outside their ability to understand or feel.
Rather the best way to communicate what we want is to spend our
time and energies locating individuals among us who already have
the wisdom and strength of character to know what we want and
need. Find these people and support them in applying for the
job of public servant. What we have
now are people who want to rule rather than to serve. They
need to be replaced if we ever expect our children to one day live
in peace and freedom.
It's true that we can no longer depend on or trust the mainstream
media to promote such people. In fact, the system we are now
operating under is designed to exclude such people from ever
holding office. But the opportunity is not totally closed.
We've been indoctrinated into believing that the mechanisms
for advancing such people into leadership roles no longer exists.
But so far, no government official goes into the voting
booth with us when we vote on election day. That means we
can, if we have the will and the desire, vote for whomever we want.
What I am suggesting is that we stop trying to influence
leaders who are not qualified or intellectually and morally mature
enough to lead, and replace them with people who are. In
other words, stop voting for Democrats or Republicans. Stop
voting for anyone who belongs to a political party. Instead,
find people who you believe have the consciousness, character, and
vision to serve the People rather than
to govern them. Stop wasting your time
trying to influence an institution that operates as an antithesis
to its originally intended purpose.
2.
Stop supporting
institutions that don't support you. When the bus system in
Alabama refused to change their practice of making blacks sit in
the back of buses, a few inspired leaders finally figured out that
the best way to change the minds of the bus company's management
was to stop riding the buses altogether. It was, to be sure,
an inconvenience to walk rather than to ride the bus. But
when the black community stopped riding the buses, the bus company
found that it was even more inconvenient for them. They
didn't like losing the income that the black community was
providing them by using their services. Their income, it
turns out, was more important to them than their
prejudice.
Stop watching or listening to the news that's being offered by the
mainstream media. If you stop using their services they will
eventually change or go out of business. Stop watching all
programs when they are offered, but instead tape them, and watch
them later when you can skip over the commercials. Stop
buying the products being advertised. You don't need all
those drugs and processed GMO foods. When the
government adopts a single payer healthcare system, like Medicare
for all, and the news and programming actually supports your
dignity as a citizen, you can begin to use their services again.
Why should you accept a system that makes you a slave to
your employer by forcing you to work for them on their terms in
order to retain decent health care for yourself and your children?
Having decent health care is a basic human
right and should not be dependent on your employment or
income. Governments and corporations in a democracy are
supposed to serve the People, not manage, dominate, or enslave
them. If you have the courage and the fortitude, you
can turn things around. But you have to have courage,
fortitude and self respect if you expect to be treated with
dignity. You don't have to fight anyone. You only
have to act in your own self interest even if is a bit inconvenient
(or maybe even a great sacrifice) for awhile. If you can't
find the self respect to retain your freedom, you are surely going
to lose it. And if you're black, you're going to lose it
again, which is doubly tragic (wasn't 250 years
enough?).
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