ELEPHANT  (CONT)

governance: organisms that chronically misjudge reality and are not continuously responsive to changes in their environment get selected out of the genome. (Think Darwin Awards. Think global warming. )

Regrettably, natural selection grinds slowly, and most of us won't live to see the natural comeuppance of the elephant in our midst. But we aren't helpless.

For starters, we can challenge the elephant's names and frames with our own realities. For example, we might rename the plan for privatizing Social Security more realistically as "Assisted Suicide" for the elderly, sick and unlucky.

There is an elephant in our living-room. Blaming the elephant's handlers, identifying its embedded wrongs or opposing its actions won't solve the problem. Neither will just getting rid of it, until and unless all members of the family participate in running the household.

It's not hopeless:

"Pace yourself," says an old proverb, "an elephant can be swallowed, one bite at a time."

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