Politics

Should I be open to communicate with people that have different political leanings? My politics is that we should deliberately eliminate irresponsible companies, such as ExxonKnew, from existence. The requirement that it be deliberate is at once democratic and fringe. It is so fringe that the common wisdom that diplomacy is good is laughable to me. My idea, to delicense an oil major, is so simple and unheard of that I have to assume nearly everyone is desperately repressing it. Does a psychologist keep harping on the repressed obvious truth? Should I try to convince others to picket with me? Or should I make their intransigence felt by my absence? I imagine there will be a tipping point for me when a movement is close enough to the one and only mark that I tolerate a little misdirection. But by then society will have reached its tipping point already. Are movements symptoms or causes of social change? I suppose it depends on the change. The change I want, the liberty to vote against companies I don’t like, is so consequential that I imagine the movements would be reactionary rather than revolutionary. Thus, it makes sense to trust super-national survival instinct instead of interest group survival instinct to stop climate change. Is that grandiose? I would argue a referendum against ExxonKnew would be super-historic. Hopefully it would be good, because climate change makes it necessary. Politicians are people; we vote for people, also known as characters or personalities. That is the level of democracy we have now. That is a low level because individuals, such as politicians, at best and/or worst right now, mirror collective will, instead of influencing it. Math is not made up; gdp, inflation, demand, and value are made up. California is great because it tried so many experiments, such as universities, ballot measures, and cap and trade, not because it succeeds. Democratically destroying ExxonKnew is not voting on a person or measure; it is voting on progress; in contrast, it would give individuals much more of the power they deserve. The story of the USA, California in particular, and the world in general, is one of individuals grudgingly taking on more responsibility. It is reluctance to take on the responsibility of deciding whether ExxonKnew is responsible that causes climate change.