An Elegant Solution

My 1960s self is reasserting itself. I am a bit to the left, but not a radical group left. In those days I could still have sane conversations with my peers about the same amount as me but to the right.
We often didn’t agree on much. But we did agree that the truly radical left and the genuinely radical right were the problem. Those of us, mildly left or right, often had a grip on the issues. We could even dialogue on possible answers. The knives and bludgeons did not necessarily come out at the end of spirited discussions.
I remember one discussion that ended with us agreeing on an interesting course of action. We would put all the extreme radicals of the left and right in a locked ballroom. Then, we would throw the key and return a day later to see who survived. They’d probably all die of excess political diatribes. Or they would succumb to toxic and extreme stupidity. They’d also suffer from Hypoxia (oxygen shortage) brought on by all that screaming and yelling.

It’s an old suggestion, true, from a gentler and milder time. But perhaps its time has come around again.