“Once you feel like you have something in your grasp, it becomes harder to be willing to let it go. And it’s something that happens not because you’re a bad person, but … it’s Institutional Creep, it’s Institutional Capture; that’s just how it goes.
–Briahna Joy Gray, from about the 26-minute mark here (emphasis added)
This is a good woman trying to finally answer the week’s question, about why another good woman, AOC of course, would refuse to engage in hard-nosed politics for the best of causes, even after her dear mamabear cut her out of the very committee assignments she was pointing to just a few days ago as a reason to Behave herself.
Compare and contrast with another polemic, the one that goes:
We decided?! My best interest?!
How do you know what my best interest is!
How can you say what my best interest is!
And what are ya trying ta say, I’m crazy?!When I went to your schools!
I went to your churches!
I went to your Institutional Learning Facilities!
So how can ya say I’m crazy?!”
As an adult, you can duck for shelter into a church or a grad school for a while, as if that will help. But really there’s only one Institution you’re allowed practically, and that is a Job.
I played that game for forty years. I’m done playing.
Even the esteemed and well-compensated job of Congressperson is an Institution that corrupts absolutely, and almost instantly. This week is proof of it. Take a strong moral young waitress. Elevate her to success. Addict her to the comfort and the status, and watch it all crash and burn.
This is lesson of the Winter Solstice night 2020.