@quillfire

Quill -

It has taken me a while to come back to this. The analogy is so apt; the satire on point; it is so well written that I had a visceral reaction to the violence. As I always do. And I was reading it at 5.30am. Not sensible.

There is much in your post and in the comments that followed that resonate. The issues of corruption and inappropriately acquired power are so much front of mind for me: South Africa has to deal with deep-rooted corruption which is just being uncovered and which still risks sending our country to the fiscal cliff. It was exactly these things, on a smaller level, that turned the environment in which I had happily worked as a consultant for more than 25 years, into a toxic cesspool. It turned me into a jibbering wreck and a near pauper. Every piece of evidence in my last research project and associated recommendations were second-guessed. A six-month project took 12 - no actually more, because it was 24/7 and shouldn't have been. So bad was it, that when we did the public presentation, a fellow consultant on whom I'd never clapped eyes, took on a director general of a national government department and berated her and the team for their treatment of my team and I. By that point, because they were paying the bill, I was more than done. There was no rational reason for this conduct - we had tested our work with peers who warned us that it was "too good - they won't understand it". We knew it was not what they wanted (needed) to hear; we were the best bidders (experience and price) but not their preferred bidders. Their "preferred" bidders were pals and would have been referees and players. Yes, it left me bruised and bloody and, yes, defeated. To keep my ethics and soul in tact, I have now walked away from that type of work and the sector. Completely. With nothing. The jaundice about which I wrote in my introductory post on Steemit, remains. A digression. But.

All this is what is happening here. As you say. This brings me to

they remained silent, as is expected and required of the Silent Majority

There comes a time when this bunch actually begins to hit back, and I think, as you point out, this is beginning to happen here (and in South Africa). The PHC strategy in the poll demonstrates that. I have just written a post about two other communities of which I am part and which share the ethics espoused in our PHC community. I would like to believe that if the changes are coming - as you and @bluemist suggest - then it will be for the good.

I have to believe that. As I do for South Africa. Perhaps it's because I'm a glass half full (of wine) girl or just insanely idealistic. I do have to believe that good triumphs over evil, and that rules (bent occasionally) are essential. The one that I think is central to all of this is:

Do no harm.

It seems, though, that there are sadists and megalomaniacs on the platform that unless reigned in, will ensure this does not happen.

That said, if there is a shoul of minnows and dolphins who form a school to take on the whales, I'm in.