I'm sure one can (as your example shows), but the operative word to me is temporarily. The window of opportunity is incredibly small. Interests vest, self-fund, and replicate themselves with amazing rapidity these days.
The AIDS issue is a good example of what I mean. The undeniable great good that an organization like APLA did in the early years, when it was operating on what amounted to a shoestring dwarfs the little practical dollar-for-dollar good it has done since it became an immense, well-funded non-profit corporation. Administrators abound now, all busy administering each other, attending conferences about administering, sponsoring workshops about administering, meeting with administrators of their funders to discuss more administration. The clients have been almost forgotten in the process, a sub-specialty retained for appearances sake, to be trotted out at the appropriate time.
As to the other, I agree that the boat sailed long ago, and am constantly reminded that we are are now safely ensconced back in the realm of fantasy. As H.L. Mencken's wrote,
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. |
