We are frequently warned about the ‘elephant in the room’. You can be sitting in your living room and someone wisely points out that ‘we are avoiding the elephant in the room’ suggesting if we master the elephant maybe the problem will be solved. My response to this standard wisdom is: “if you were to really randomly polk about an elephant in a living room, imagine the mess that irritated elephant could make of your well ordered living space. The Good Decision Project is about elephant training and not elephant hunting. Like the ‘skunk in the tent’ you approach the problem with patience and due caution.

We seem to live in the age of elephant hunting and sadly not training. People gather with people known and loved and say things like: “how could you vote for so and so? Have you lost your mind? Presumably this kind of question will bring down the elephant. Or as I read in the paper today: “How can you support a ‘Marxist candidate’ or ‘a person who doesn’t care a whit about personal, private rights’ The reality is not one in a hundred people you will talk to has ever read directly anything about Karl Marx, his life, his history, or his context. Marxism like so many other critical issues of our time, is devolved into a dog whistle that you blow when you want to hear barking. Human rights if you have given human rights a lot of thought, is a very personal, intimate and even spiritual conversation. How about if we are as concerned as we say, we are, we take the time to talk both the elephant out of the living room and whisper the skunk out of the tent. It takes time and even more than three cups of tea, but it is the work we need to do in this time of decision.