Once I read that people with a business background are immensely frustrated when they enter government because in government they lack the controls they had in business – when in business they could direct a job to get done and it would get done because there was an audited trail of actions that allowed close accounting of employee behavior up and down the lines of authority. In this environment problems can be anticipated in advance and preemptive action taken so that "dust does not need to rise in the first place." (I might add this is also true for government when functioning essentially as a business. It does not apply equally however when politics becomes the determinative factor in the decision process.)
Thus, when politics is involved and we are dealing with a broad sweep of social issues, often jobs do not get done and cannot get done unless there is an unrelenting swirl of dust to keep the matter on the public agenda. There is always a huge force of inertia in public affairs enforcing the status quo-- awesome forces with massive stakes in keeping things as they are. These forces have obtained benefit from the status quo and often over time have amassed great power, wealth, and influence infiltrating key aspects of public life. In times of crisis when the dust is swirling, these forces look to levers of control to dampen the situation. Thus they emphasize short-term solutions and narrow focus often using the police power of the state. They look forward to using these levers to quiet the situation causing the dust to settle and everything to return to what is taken as normal exactly as before.
Unfortunately for forces of power--often more or less tyrannical--modern technology has introduced graphic images of reality into public discourse. Therefore delusional social justice will increasingly be preempted by the real thing.
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