it's not fair to say that they abandoned the goal
it's more like, back in the day, they started rowing in a certain direction in pursuit of that goal. turned out that rowing upstream is pretty hard, so they decided to try rowing downstream instead. they can still see the goal, it's getting farther and farther, but they can legitimately say they haven't given up the goal if they honestly believe that rowing further and further downstream will somehow take them there. I can't say that I follow their reasoning, and ISTM that they're fooling themselves and others in the process, but I can believe they (or at least some of them) still think they're pursuing that stated goal somehow. perhaps an outvoted idealistic minority surrounded by double-thinkers and misguided strategists... :-(