It's a dog-eat-dog world.
What baffles me so much about any school of thought, politically speaking, is this fear that any compromise whatsoever will result in a runaway avalanche effect at full steam in the other direction. If you compromise on gun rights in favor of gun control, somehow that automatically means that every single gun you own will be immediately confiscated. If you compromise on fossil fuels in favor of green energy, somehow that automatically means that you are in favor of shutting down the oil industry entirely and cut out thousands of jobs. And if you compromise on cracking down on crime in favor of reducing police brutality, somehow that automatically means that you are in favor of hamstringing our police forces and allowing criminals to walk freely on our streets.
As I'm writing this, it occurs to me that this is a mindset that is naturally borne from our American capitalist mentality, the idea that all in life is a competition, and everything to be gained exists within a zero-sum game. In such a high-risk/high-reward system such as modern business, every penny you fail to pinch gets pinched by someone else, and failure to be as diligent and downright ruthless in your methods inevitably results in your business going under. This type of mentality is EVERYWHERE in our country, from our religion to how we grade our students to how we play sports and games - "Stand firm in your beliefs, and give a hundred and ten percent," because anything less than that will mean that the other guy "beats you." So really, I shouldn't be surprised that some of the most successful practices in our country are lead by those least keen on compromise. They've spent their whole lives being spoon-fed this idea that any leeway you give on your ideas is ground that the "other guy" will take, and that once "they" have even a little wiggle room, they will snatch your victory out from under you.
Except there is no victory for any side here. No one will never have enough money or enough energy or enough "freedom" to ever truly "win" anything. Even the filthy rich know this - why do you think they keep trying to get richer? They know that, at any moment, it could all get taken away from them by "the other guy," even if it's a million to one chance. So they keep playing the game as if any step they take that doesn't further their own ends could potentially ruin their entire way of life. Because in the business world, the only thing that truly matters is the bottom line.
This is not a way of life that has an ending. There is no finish line you can cross in life except in death. I don't believe there is any such thing in this world as true good or true evil - all in life is based on perspective. The same decision can appear to be unquestionably right or wrong depending on your perspective. What this means, however, is that when it comes down to it, no idea is ever inherently special. The only thing - the ONLY thing - that makes YOUR values and YOUR ideas and YOUR way of life worth anything at all is that they are YOURS.
You can make any argument you want in favor of your own ideas. Anyone can. And if you're good enough with words, you can convince a whole lot of people that you're right. But ultimately, no one is ever more "right" than anyone else. But we've all been trained to think that we are. I wish I had an answer to this problem, but I honestly don't know how this can possibly change. Even if ninety-nine percent of the country decide to compromise, whether it's in religion, social class, school, guns, energy or crime, the one percent who don't will end up gaining that much more influence, and momentarily be that much more "right." And everyone who's played the game long enough knows this, so in the end, no one ever compromises.
All I can say is that until someone in charge is willing to compromise, we're going to KEEP seeing school shootings, we're going to KEEP seeing the divide in social class, we're going to KEEP seeing the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, we're going to KEEP seeing established energy companies keep progressive companies down, we're going to KEEP seeing religious bigotry trying to undermine anything that challenges its dogma, and we're going to KEEP seeing unlawful police brutality going undeterred. The majority of those in charge of the status quo are convinced that there is no room for compromise, that any leeway they give ultimately undermines their cause, and will ultimately bankrupt them.
Not all in life is business, but this country sure treats it that way.
