To put it as simple as possible, even if everyone was on board with the objective, which they won’t be, if you have 5 people try to agree on a course of action, you’re going to hear 6 different opinions. Once upon a time you could rely on a certain level of mutual trust to get to a mutually agreeable solution, but no one can trust anyone these days. You can’t trust companies, you can’t trust the state. You can’t trust the church, and you definitely can’t trust God(s), can’t trust family, can’t trust people who are different from you, can’t trust people who are the same as you… And to be honest I see no good reason any of us should. We all claim we have the same values but no one acts like it. We have 50,000 years of reasons you should never trust anyone.

But that means if you want to get something done, you need to build agreement from square one every time. If people don’t agree to it, you’re just going to end up with roadblocks, opposition, and sabotage. People need to be on board, and I mean fully committed or whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish is never getting done, even if it could potentially help people. You don’t build support in a day, you’re not going to be able to have a face to face conversation with everyone, and we all know you can’t believe anything in an ad, in the news or on the internet.

So the simplest things take decades to get moving. Because getting people to do anything for someone they can’t trust is nearly impossible.Trust is the rarest commodity on earth, no relationship, from family, to friends, to nations can operate without it, and humanity is almost tapped out of it.

Some try for things in their lifetime. A major issue is generally Congress.

It’s not satisfying, but things take time.

Because if you define specific and measurable goals within your term people might judge you for failing to meet them.

From a strategic perspective it’s a lot simpler to promise things far away because unless you are in power for the whole duration you can blame “the other side” for not being able to meet the goal when the deadline finally arrives.