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most of the folk on board are passengers
There's lots of disagreement about the direction the ship should be sailing: some of the passengers think we should be headed East, others West; some don't care where the ship goes, as long as it's not the direction we're headed now; some just hope the ship doesn't sink, while others just want to chop holes in the hull and scuttle the old girl right now here in the middle of the ocean
On paper, the captain is in charge, but he doesn't actually man the rigging or pump the bilge or cook the mess, and the folk who actually do these things have their own opinions and don't always listen well to the captain, which may seems good (or not) depending on whether one agree with them (or doesn't)
Every other November, some of the passengers switch places with some of the crew, and there's a scheduled mutiny every fourth November. The hope is that the passengers will select a captain and crew who want to go where the passengers want to go and who actually know enough about sailing to get there -- but the reality is often somewhat different
In trying to choose captain and crew, the passengers must ask questions themselves tricky questions: Do I prefer someone who wants to go where I want to go but doesn't know jackshizz about sailing, or do I prefer a crackerjack seaman who wants to go somewhere I don't want to go? If half the crew wants to sail East and the other half West, should I hope we actually finally sail North or should I hope we actually finally sail South?
Over the years, the passengers have often chosen a captain who wants to sail one direction and a crew that wants to sail the other direction, or a captain who knows what he is doing and a crew that doesn't know what it is doing, or a captain determined to save the ship and a crew determined to scuttle it
And so we sail back and forth
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