So how to effect change in the face of hardened ideology protected by bandwagon effects and psychological defenses?
Two things.
First, major change tends to be incremental in humans who are rather conservative or cautious creatures, maybe for good reason, like survival. The people you want to change are like people with concrete around their heads. You are like a hammer pounding away at that concrete.
Progressive people are always getting angry because change is never happening quickly or thoroughly enough for them. This is why they are always agitating. However, once you realize that it’s perfectly normal for change to be incremental, you can start to relax. Slow and incomplete change is normal. It’s how humans work. It’s not an outrage. It’s part of human life. Accept it and relax.
Second, hammer home your point. Pound away at your idea, repeating it endlessly. Write as many articles as you can about it. Flood the media. Always try to enlist more and more people to get on board with your idea and get them to hammer home the idea of the change you want to effect.
When you do this, imagine you have a hammer on your head, and you are a human woodpecker of sorts. The political project you want to achieve is like a nail on a board that never goes deeper. You have to hammer away at that issue forever. Keep pounding on that damn nail. And get more people do it along with you, that way you have a plethora of voices demanding the change. And if you pound away often, you are making a lot of noise.
Change is also a “wave affect.” You want to get the “wave of change” going and then move it in your direction. If you pound away long and hard enough, you may eventually effectuate some change. Don’t give up as change tends to be slow.
