Have We Given Them Enough Rope?

All may be better than we imagine, as enough rope should lead to better hangings.

Give them enough rope and they will hang themselves. 

It works this way.  As people lose the ability to make good approximations of reality and see the world only as they want to see it (my truth is for practical purposes, the Truth), they (1) lose credibility with others and grow closer to membership in a cult (hence wandering off—it has happened before—into some jungle settlement) and (2) are likely to crack their heads against a wall they don’t believe exists. 

It’s already happening to vaccine deniers.

It is a potential flaw in the thinking of all true-believing partisans and many intense abstract/fantasy thinkers.  

There are many bright and shining paths that lead away from or over practical solutions—and into trouble.  Fanatics (and there is a bit of fanaticism in all of us) rush to the barricade—ahead of the barricades. 

Each year the Darwin list includes the death defying (and accomplishing) escapades of those whose withdrawal of genetic material from the human stockpile is allegedly a positive gain to the species.  Many had too much rope.  

Is Bill Coffin’s famous biblical analogy of the swine, ridden by demons, applicable? He imagined that, rushing to the edge of a cliff, one swine said to another. “What’s going on, why the rush?”  And the other replied, “Don’t worry.  As long as we keep moving and stay together it’s sure to come out alright.” 

Be careful who you run with. Check to see if they are carrying too much fantasy rope.