Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Ideas do have a cost

I have just came to the realisation that unpopular ideas will never start wars nor overthrow governments nor result in anything of any significance without at least some form of support. Which is why Trump's wall will never be built in its presently-proposed state. It is one thing to have the cockamamie idea of walling yourself up from your neighbouring countries, it's another to get the support to bring that to fruition. As Donald Drumpf should have hopefully realised, it's not enough to want something to happen - especially if that plans turns out to be unpopular.



In comparison, we have Elon Musk, a strange, enigmatic man who has somehow been able to to get grown-ups to believe in dancing electric cars, racing snails and going to mars. Most of us would probably admit that we also had crazy hopes and dreams when we were children but that they were set aside when less sexy things like earning a living took priority. And yet, despite all of these responsibilities we still put our hard-earned money towards his fanciful dreams. How is it that building a measly wall gets a hard no but racing a snail does?

Perhaps it's not so much whether the idea is crazy but whether you have the ability to get other people to metaphorically and physically invest in that same idea. I guess where building a wall falls down is in its tone. At its core it is symbolic of fear, bigotry and hatred whereas the ideas that Musk puts forward are at its essence messages of hope and for the benefit of mankind. I think Trump would find far more success if he were to reframe his hope for funding as one designed to enable those wishing to immigrate a more streamlined experience and perhaps putting in stronger countermeasures to vet those with more nefarious intentions. But, as the statistics have clearly stated, most Mexicans are not drug-dealers, murderers or rapists and the sooner that Trump reframes his message as such, the sooner he will get his funding. In a nutshell, you should simply ask yourself what can I do to help those around me? And perhaps you'd get a far better response