You Can't Fix What You Don't Understand

As a follow-up to my last post, I had someone respond to what I wrote, saying:

They're not lawyers writing up legislation. They're demanding that the political elites start representing everybody and not just the champagne swillers cavorting on their wall st balconies. Its up to the elites to propose the remedies.

But of course, Martin Luther King wasn't a lawyer either, yet that didn't  prevent him from identifying racist laws or identifying specific inequities we needed to fix.  He didn't just say "end racism."  He said, "End Jim Crow Laws."  You don't need to write legislation to have a basic idea of what you want done, yet these people imagine you can go from Slogan to Solution simply by holding a sign long enough.

And what's so troubling here is that these people really seem to imagine they're experts on this subject, yet refuse to accept any responsibility for getting it done.  They imagine their job is simply to show up and shout "Fix everything."  Well, that's great, but when the protesters themselves can't even give a basic idea of what those fixes are, how can the "political elites" know what they need to fix?

And that's also why they're so frustrated with Obama.  For them, fixing things is as easy as talking about it, and then it'll get done.  And since Obama hasn't fixed everything in this manner, it can only be because he's not trying.

Lazy Protesters v. the Banker Cabal

And seriously, this just won't do.  These people imagine they're the responsible ones taking a stand, yet they refuse to do any of the hard work.  Holding a sign is easy.  Crafting good legislation is extremely difficult, even under the best of conditions.  Yet these people not only want to leave the legislation to legislators (which I understand), but refuse to even identify basic solutions to our problems.  And that's just lazy.  It's no different from Tea Partiers who rant against Obama, yet can't identify any specific areas to fix.

These people aren't trying to change the world.  They're wanting to live in a fantasy, which makes them heroes combating villains; yet without any actual combat.  Hell, they don't even think they should be arrested for breaking the law!  They say Wall Street bankers broke the law, well what law?  They say we need to make things more fair, but don't even know exactly what is making things so unfair.  They're just the messengers, they say.  It's for others to figure out what needs to be fixed.  And that's just lazy.

And of course, the real problem is that they don't even understand how complicated our system really is, as they've got this insane idea that there's a ruling class that works together to do whatever they want.  And a media elite that gets together and determines what will and won't be covered in the news.  And that's not sane, and if anyone is basing their "fix everything" solution on the idea that a cabal can get together and fix everything, it's no wonder they can't find any solutions, because they don't even know how our system works.  And you can't fix what you don't understand.  They know bankers are stealing our money and that's good enough for them.

And so that's why they're so frustrated when we call them aimless.  Because they really do think the bankers on Wall Street will soon get together and decide to stop being bad.  It's just that simple.  And after that, Obama and the GOP will get a call from this bankers cabal and be told what laws they need to pass and everything will be happy and fair.  Huzzah!  Fixing things is as talking about it.

Now I'm going to go hold a sign telling my kitchen to clean itself.  I mean, I'd do it myself, but I'm no maid; so this is the next best solution.  It's got to work.