Working Inside The System... does it have any potential?

Yesterday I had a vigorous discussion with a long time friend about the best way to change things in any jurisdiction... his comments were based around the terms Incremental (for any potential change from within) and Revolution (for doing it from outside the system). My friend, who for the moment will remain un-named since I am quite certain he would not have me speaking for him... this is really my interpretation of his comments...

I had spent time explaining my thoughts about how we should change the Rubix Cube of healthcare, particularly CANCER and CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE in Canada... I would, in short, try to get a number of independent House of Commons representatives, who together could hold the balance of power in our perennial Minority Governments, based on independent platforms on healthcare. We would then negotiate for funding for things such as prenatal care; early child development; proper education funding and meal programs; preventative health and physical training; centralized health research; long term care facilities and palliative care services. These things having priority over making war on other countries... having our military focused on defense (as in the Department of Defense which lately has been 'rightly' focused on offence).

My friend thinks we have tried similar things, and the government persists in making short term policy decisions that are tearing at the fabric of our culture. He suggests that we, the Boomers, are at the core of the disintegration of Canada as we know it... leaving nothing for the next generations. In the 60's we knew what was wrong, and we led the revolution to change it. Things got going quite well, but we got lazy and we started focusing on material things, rather than continuing the battles to make life better... we accomplished much, in the 60's and 70's... but since then, only improvements in material things.

I have to admit that were I to spend a lot of time here... enough to work through the arguments of my friend, to which I have not here done justice... I would prove to myself (at least) that my friend is correct. We need a revolution... it is the loss of the material matters that holds me back from supporting his view. I believe that before we revolt, we need to work from inside... but we need to be determined in our work.