People who say “You can’t put the Genie back in the bottle” really miss the point of how they got in there to start with
Our minds are far too willing to accept idioms as truisms, and this can limit our capability if unexamined. Far too often we face a dangerous development, often technological but sometimes social, and feel that there’s no going back.
This denies us our power. It’s a lazy excuse to do nothing. Perhaps it is a way to force us to accept something dangerous or unpalatable.
The shaming truth of course is, Genies were only in bottles in the first place because someone exerted mighty power to bottle them! Someone saw the danger and chose to act.
It’s lovely when someone gives our Bystander Apathy a big mug of cocoa and assures us it’s okay to do nothing. But it’s a lie and we will feel it later.
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