They’d look to ‘get’ me, to point out how awful and harmful and unethical everything was, to dig into my past for ways to attack me. They’d point out my lack of credentials, all my points of view or isolated sentences they didn’t like from anywhere. There would be blood in the water
I’m fascinated how well this thought experiment parallels the story of Rasputin—a self-proclaimed healer who got into the inner circle of Czar’s family by helping their sick child and then worked to expand his influence. In the end, a group of nobles decided that the influence of Rasputin was threatening the empire, so they poisoned, shot and drowned him. Blood in the water indeed.
Notably, Rasputin really was threatening the empire—many historians consider him a significant contributor to the revolution. The suggestion here is that trying to change the working system from the inside—being a Donald Trump—can lead to a completely different system replacing it. The replacing system might be worse in a completely different way, or it might be better, but either way it’s going to cause a lot of pain in the mean time. Be careful what you try—destroying the FDA or the CDC may just lead to more people refusing to get vaccinated or wear masks, while simultaneously leading to snake oil or to a resurgence of other diseases. A gain in one area leads to being much worse off in others.
I’m fascinated how well this thought experiment parallels the story of Rasputin—a self-proclaimed healer who got into the inner circle of Czar’s family by helping their sick child and then worked to expand his influence. In the end, a group of nobles decided that the influence of Rasputin was threatening the empire, so they poisoned, shot and drowned him. Blood in the water indeed.
Notably, Rasputin really was threatening the empire—many historians consider him a significant contributor to the revolution. The suggestion here is that trying to change the working system from the inside—being a Donald Trump—can lead to a completely different system replacing it. The replacing system might be worse in a completely different way, or it might be better, but either way it’s going to cause a lot of pain in the mean time. Be careful what you try—destroying the FDA or the CDC may just lead to more people refusing to get vaccinated or wear masks, while simultaneously leading to snake oil or to a resurgence of other diseases. A gain in one area leads to being much worse off in others.