Hey Everyone!
I thought I'd help you start your weekend off with a little food for thought. Peace!
Excerpt from Answers from Alyce:
"I don't understand the metaphor," said the big alien.
"Well, why does water boil?"
"Water boils when it reaches a temperature that creates sufficient kinetic energy within the water to speed up the water molecules enough to convert from liquid to vapor and for the pressure of that vapor to exceed the pressure of the atmosphere outside the water."
"Exactly. And many people in my country have reached that state. Things have gotten too bad for them to be able to ignore them anymore. So, now they're starting to act."
"What things?" asked Squid-boy.
"Ah, well, that's where it gets tricky. Lots of different things. You've covered some of them in this museum, but there are other things people are angry about, as well. Different people are upset about different things."
"They aren't all working towards a common goal?" asked Yax.
I shook my head. "Nope. In fact, some of them are working at cross purposes; towards conflicting goals."
"That doesn't seem like it would be terribly productive," said Squid-boy.
"Well, sugar, that remains to be seen. Right now, all we have is a whole lot of angry people. What those angry people end up being able to accomplish hasn't been determined yet. It will depend on how many of them are able to get themselves organized and if they can reach agreements with other groups and unite to form groups big enough to apply pressure to politicians that's strong enough to counter the pressure exerted by their corporate overlords."
"Ah, the corruption you talked about earlier."
"Yep."
"Has that ever happened? Have your people ever successfully overcome their differences long enough to push back effectively against the authorities in your society?" asked Yax.
"Yes. It has happened in history and it's also happening now. What's going on now is just the beginning, but it has the potential to grow and spread and become game-changing."
"Can you tell us about what happened when such movements were successful in your history?"
"Well, sugar, we've already talked about that, some. The organized labor movement that gained momentum at the beginning of the last century radically altered the way employees were treated and the rights that they had. Many of those changes are still in effect, though their power has been diluted over the decades by corporate interests. But, without unions and the fights they won, we wouldn't have a standard 5 day work week, children would still be doing hard labor in dangerous conditions, employees wouldn't have safety equipment or emergency escape exits in their workplaces, and many other protections that only exist because regular people banded together and fought for them."
"But you say that some of the ground they gained has been lost?" asked Squid-boy.
I nodded. "Yes. Those in power were able to successfully use propaganda to demonize unions in the minds of workers, so a lot of people stopped supporting them. Which meant they no longer had the power to be effective advocates for the working class in our political system."
"How could the authorities in your society have possibly come up with a disinformation campaign effective enough to confuse your people if their unions had been such powerful agents of positive change in their lives?" asked Yax.
"To be honest, the unions did themselves no favors, in that regard."
The tall alien blinked at me and crossed his arms over his chest. "How cryptic. Please explain."
"There's a saying in my society, 'Power corrupts.' And it certainly seems to work that way, quite often. The leadership of some of the largest unions became corrupt, after a while. There were even quite a few persistent rumors that organized crime syndicates were actually running some of them. Members of unions pay dues. The dues are supposed to be used to fund strikes, support striking workers and their families, fund political engagement, and other things that protect and further the interests of the members of the unions. But some of that money started getting 'lost' and, understandably, the people who paid into unions weren't happy about that. And the corporate interests that oppose unions were able to capitalize on that discontent to an enormous degree with their propaganda campaigns. The fact that the unions had been so successful also, ironically, worked against them. A lot of people thought they didn't need unions anymore because working people had already won the protections and rights that they needed."
"And once the unions were no longer in place to push back against the forces that seek to dominate and control the labor pool in your society, the advancements that were made were lost."
I shrugged. "Some of them. And others were changed enough in management's favor that they might as well have been lost. That's what happens when regular people stop working together to protect each other. Those with more power take advantage."
"But this is changing now and that's why there's so much civil unrest?" asked Squid-boy.
"It's starting to. We've had strikes by teachers who were fighting not only for increases in their own pay, but also for increases in the pay of other employees who work in the schools. Like janitorial staff, teaching assistants, office staff, and librarians. And also for increases in funding for students and classrooms, so that students wouldn't have to try to learn in classrooms with no heat in the winter or using books that were 20 years old, or more. On one notable occasion, teachers even turned down a twenty percent increase in pay for themselves because they didn't think the needs of students and other employees were sufficiently represented in the proposed increase. And there have also been examples of people who belong to other unions supporting teachers who were striking. In one strike, truck drivers refused to cross the teachers' picket line, so deliveries couldn't be made to the state government buildings where the teachers were striking."
"That sounds promising," observed Yax.
I nodded. "It really is. Acts of solidarity like that give me hope that the people of my country are finally coming to their senses and realize what we all need to do if we're going to take control of our government back from the oligarchs who are running it."
"But the civil unrest isn't centered only around labor issues," said Squid-boy.
"No. As your museum shows, we've had marches for racial equality and justice, marches to protect the environment and protest against corporate destruction of natural resources, and protests against violence and abuse of authority by the police."
"Have there been any other examples of your people joining forces to influence your government? More importantly, have any of them been successful?"
"Yes to both questions...
...But will it work? In the final analysis, will these groups that are marching and advocating for change achieve their goals?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. What's happening now is just a start, not a finish. A lot can, and I'm sure will, happen before anything is really decided. Like I said before, we'll have to wait and see what happens."
Want to see what other answers Alyce can come up with? Grab your copy at the link below. Happy reading!
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