The Principle of Exhaustion in Mass Movements
In chemistry, a reaction is said to be exhausted when one of the primary reagents required for the reaction has been used up in the process of the reaction, unless the reagent is a catalyst.
In politics, the principle of exhaustion becomes significant when a critical mass of people simply stop listening to what is being said but they also stop commenting, protesting, arguing, demonstrating, or even viewing themselves as members of an opposition movement.
We are at this point right now in American body politic.
The loyal – and disloyal – opposition to Donald Trump is exhausted, worn down by Trump’s never ceasing onslaught against our sensibilities with one insane statement after another, interspaced with a succession of much more damaging executive orders that are undoing fifty years of economic, social, scientific, environmental, racial, and social progress, not to mention a series of inappropriate political appointments the federal judiciary and departments of the executive branch.
We are watching as our entire social fabric is being rent apart and our response is to blame one person – Donald Trump – as he implements the policies that the Republican party has been attempting to implement for the past fifty years….but we still fail to recognize that Trump is merely a manifestation of an underlying malaise.
That Trump is doing the bidding of the Republican party’s leadership is indisputable. The fact that the Republican party is pleased with his performance is evidenced by the fact that Trump is still in office and still has the support of the Republican Congressional Delegation because he is doing the job that they want him to do and doing it exactly how they want it done.
So, when you talk about taking a vacation from the news because you can’t take it any more, stop and think for a minute because that’s EXACTLY what THEY want you to do.
08/21/2019 @ 12:55 pm
People who say I Don’t Care Abt Politics…tell them: Your Bank does, Your Doctors and Drug Manufacturers do, those who make laws you’ve got to live with do…if you don’t, good bloody luck.
08/21/2019 @ 1:06 pm
I personally think you’ve got it backwards.
IMO, the Republican leadership is doing Trump’s bidding because it benefits both of them. Trump has made a career out of being a flim-flam man. His historical modus operandi has always been to repeatedly make outrageous proposals and then slide in one that almost seems sensible compared to the others, but would have been considered to be atrocious if standing alone.
08/22/2019 @ 10:53 am
People who are “taking a vacation from the news because (they) can’t take it any more…” are always going to be part of the problem, and never part of the solution….