Today all that remain in these extreme corners are the purists - the political/social/financial equivalent to the Puritans. Now the Center is where politicians go, should they dare, only to die.
And so those who govern worry. The very idea of recapturing and repopulating the Center seems now hopelessly out of reach. So instead they must keep an increasingly intrusive eye on us, all of us. On every corner, CCTV cameras whir as they follow us along city sidewalks. Our phones have become about as private as indian smoke signals. Our Web surfing habits and emails fill NSA pillbox-like warehouses in Utah for storage, like frozen sperm or eggs, just in case.
Anyone who thinks any of that is going to change for the better is kidding themself. As long as the Center remains a no-man's land, no man, or woman, or child is going to go unwatched. Because, even extremists know, maybe better than anyone, that there has never been an extremist who can be trusted with the Common Good.
Because the hard work of creating and protecting the Common Good can only happen in the Center. Everything else is conflict. And conflict breeds self-confirming paranoia. And paranoia creates, well, what we're getting right now.
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