A Butterfly for Progress

In 1961, a scientist named Edward Lorenz was processing a weather model on a computer when he made an accidental discovery. On the day following one computer run, he re-started the process using a number rounded off at the third decimal. At first it looked like the computer run from the day before, but then it started diverging, and as time continued the difference became greater and greater. The reason, he discovered, was that the number from the previous day had been rounded off at the sixth decimal. That tiny variation had altered the outcome over time. It has been called the “Butterfly Effect,” based on the notion that something as small as a butterfly, flapping its wings on one part of the globe, could eventually affect the weather on some other part of the planet.

We activists for democracy are “Butterflies for Progress.” The littlest things we do to advance democracy will have their effects. Perhaps not now, but in time. Perhaps not directly, but indirectly. Perhaps not here, but somewhere. Our contributions will matter. And the world will be altered because of them. Let us therefore join together, each contributing what he or she can, to create a world with peace, respect for the environment, religious tolerance, true equality under the law, and freedom to the maximum extent that cooperative life will allow.

Promote the General Welfare!

Over at Daily Kos, author Mark Sumner posted an appeal for a “progressive movement that can catch the public eye, without the screaming lunacy of a Glenn Beck or the purposeful lying of an Andrew Breitbart.” In a follow-up comment, “Rumblelizard” noted that “most right-wing policies fit neatly onto a bumper sticker.” Thinking along those lines, I came up with some “bumper sticker messages” which seemed to me to present Progressive ideas in ways that caught the eye without screaming or lying:

My Body, My Choice Concerning reproductive rights, and end of life rights
No Wars, No Deficits! For war-lovers suddenly scared of deficits
What Are the Wars For Now? Anti-wars-of-choice
How Did Tax Cuts Help? For the "tax cuts forever" crowd
Luke 6:31 [the “do to others as you would have them do to you” verse]
Regarding unemployment benefits and Medicaid
Earth Is What You Make It Polluted, hotter
No Establishment of Religion Including Christianity
Marriage is a Private Affair Including for homosexuals
Progressivism: Mutually Assured Survival The core idea of Progressivism

Perhaps slogans like these could be used in blog posts, and even as titles for blog posts, like above. Good ones might go viral that way!

Of course, slogans like these could also catch the public eye by means of actual bumperstickers. You can learn how to make bumperstickers here and here.

I don’t believe the majority of Americans want to live 236 years in the past. We have to figure out how to best survive in the present. The world of the Tea Party no longer exists. It is naive and dangerous to presume we can go back there.