Protesting to me has always felt like you are forcing things to happen, but the same bureaucracy that controls the decisions at the very top is still there.
Could 12 million Americans (3.5%) who are selfless and self-aware change the entire country around them? I would love a study on something like this, even if it is for a relatively small city/country.
"There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man.
How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself."
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/leo-tolstoy-on-anarc...
Seems like 3.5% could also be a pretty good estimate of how many voters or less make all the decisions when it comes to less-publicized local elections.
How about 12 million who are selfish and unempathetic when it comes to very many of their fellow Americans?