Dear Source:
The Virgin Islands is not unique in having symptoms of "Crabs in a Bucket Syndrome".
Nature has parodies that mimic human social structures. If you have ever gone to the shore to gather a tasty of dinner of crabs you have seen crabs in a bucket with no lid, but they do not escape. As soon as a crab gains a claw-hold, on the edge of the bucket it is pulled back in by the weight of others who hang on. Two or three smart crabs working together get things done and are able to crawl out of the bucket together. They are like little Ninjas. One crab gets a hold of the edge of the bucket, another one, gets up under him and pushes with all his might. The third crab seeing the idea decides, to position himself under the second crab and they push the top guy up and over to freedom. The key is to hold on tight and the momentum of the top little guy falling into the abyss of freedom pulls the other two up and over the edge of the bucket. I think I have actually seen theses little guys scurry to the water laughing and never looking back at the other fools stuck in the bucket. That is how the best and brightest leave closed societies.
What is left are the people who have found their place in the sun, or people who are too ineffectual to impact the status quo, or newcomers. Newcomers may force their ideas on the locals. Ultimately it is the newcomers who support the change in closed societies. They get behind the ideas and energy of a few of the locals who are altruistic and want to preserve a way of life they idealize. Newcomers may be hungry for acceptance in their new home. People hate change. Yet when one person, a change agent, forces change…. everyone has to change. It is a natural consequence.
I would like to recommend a book entitled "The Fountainhead," by the Russian/American novelist Ayn Rand. In the introduction she says, "Some give up at the first touch of pressure; some sell out; some run down by imperceptible degrees & lose their fire, never knowing when or how they lost it…Yet a few hold on and move on, knowing that fire is not to be betrayed, learning how to give it shape, purpose and reality. But whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and life's potential. There are very few guideposts to find.
Do I know the Virgin Islands? I know it has a bunch of people who would like to affect change, but a few barghests kill the effort before it is born.
Fortunately, I believe in Knights in White Satin and the Moody Blues too. "Nights in White Satin…just what you want to be, you will be in the end…. But we decide which is right. And which is an illusion."
Jane Blake Moore
Reston, Va./Castle Rock, Colo.
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