A cold, hard, truth?

In 1895, Frederick Douglass famously told a woman's suffrage meeting that there are three ways to effect justice and social change: "Agitate, agitate, agitate!" If only it were that simple. Chauncey DeVega: "Most folks would like to believe that they would fight the good fight, join up with the Freedom Riders and take on Jim Crow, struggle as guerrillas with the French Underground, or fly their Y-wing fighters with the Rebel Alliance against the evil Galactic Empire. But how many of us actually would? ... Enter: the classic free rider, collective action problem. If most folks just want to stay out of the way of history and are content to remain anonymous as they simply go about their business in the face of Power, is it fair or reasonable to expect them to fight the good fight? ... Maybe the black, brown, women, gay, working class, and other folks who stood on the sidelines while other people labored to expand democracy and make citizenship more full were simply rational actors who played the game well. That may not seem very civic-minded, but it is perhaps a cold, hard, truth."