The activist’s curse lies in the following rhetorical question:
If I can change my mind, and if you can change your mind, who are you and I to unilaterally declare that it is too late for the rest of our society to change it’s mind, too?
Because it is obviously possible, no matter how improbable it may be, the honest activist may not excuse himself from the cause by pretending that it is impossible to succeed in changing the minds of others. Rather, he or she must face the reality that if he opts not to try, it is because he or she does not care enough to expend the energy necessary to determine whether it is possible or not.
The very possibility of reform is like the proverbial carrot being dangled in front of the horse’s nose to coax him ever forward. So forward I go, as if on parade by those who would rather lie about the possibility.
