Perhaps the primary reason that we choose leaders is to have them do what we ourselves cannot or will not do: make tough decisions, handle complex problems, or eradicate a dangerous threat. We choose leaders in the hope that their actions will make our lives better, and we follow their lead because we want to go where we believe they can take us. After all, who in his right mind will follow someone that is clearly a fool?
What bothers me the most about the current field of presidential candidates, about the current incumbents in US Congress, about the executives in charge of huge corporations, and a plethora of other lower-ranking officials is that I don't see their paths leading anywhere better, or even anywhere good, for most of us. In many of Plato's "Dialogues," he had Socrates discussing the matter of what might be the greatest good, that thing we ought to seek above all others. These questions about what is best for all of us are ancient ones, yet we still haven't answered them. But do I see any goodness or any sense of sincerity about doing any good (like Plato's Socrates exhibited) in most of what these would-be leaders are proposing? No. I see pandering, empty rhetoric and self-serving arrogance, all thinly veiled with media-savvy talking points and the kinds of evasive language that George Orwell decried more than six decades ago in his essay, "Politics and the English Language." Not only are these questions of goodness very old, the non-stop array of charlatans ever posing as having the answers is so very disturbing.
Show us something new, ladies and gentlemen. Don't tell us that tax cuts or business incentives are the answers. We have seen during the last few years that placing our faith in "pro-business interests" is a losing proposition, since those men and women seem to believe only in living like the mythical dragons who breathed fire and terrorized villages when the hoards of treasure in their caves were threatened. Don't tell us two truths at once: that we are winning the wars but that we need to continue fighting for several more years to ensure the we do win. We have seen ten years of war that we hear has left our opponents groveling in caves and we now know that our debts from those wars are seemingly insurmountable. The answers to these questions of goodness must come from something other than tax cuts and more war when we are watching, literally, as the lack of goodness diminishes our overall quality of life. Take us somewhere better than tax cuts and war.
Once, I heard a former Civil Rights movement activist say about the current financial mess that you can't shame someone who has no shame. The people who have created this situation and the ones who continue to perpetrate it have shown the world that they have no shame. Any person with a sense of decency would not have done the things that have caused this: selling houses to people they knew could not pay for them, seeking loan guarantees for those bad loans to insure their own safety net, reducing oversight to allow bad deals to be made, then coming back smiling, blaming others, and asking us to be repeat customers, to have "brand loyalty." Come back for more, they say to us. Shameless.
Show us something new, you leaders. Show us a genuine concern for goodness. Show us something more than the symbolism that rolling up the sleeves on your starched button-down at a public appearance to make us believe you are ready to work. If you want our votes or our patronage, then show us that you have earned it. Show us how we can live well and happily. Because division, resentment and anger are not serving us well at all, and neither are the effects of the lies, deceit and manipulation that have brought us this far.
Politics is the process of working out our differences, not exacerbating them. For the sake of us all, including yourselves, show us -- don't tell us, show us -- that you can do that, if you want to be our leaders.
What bothers me the most about the current field of presidential candidates, about the current incumbents in US Congress, about the executives in charge of huge corporations, and a plethora of other lower-ranking officials is that I don't see their paths leading anywhere better, or even anywhere good, for most of us. In many of Plato's "Dialogues," he had Socrates discussing the matter of what might be the greatest good, that thing we ought to seek above all others. These questions about what is best for all of us are ancient ones, yet we still haven't answered them. But do I see any goodness or any sense of sincerity about doing any good (like Plato's Socrates exhibited) in most of what these would-be leaders are proposing? No. I see pandering, empty rhetoric and self-serving arrogance, all thinly veiled with media-savvy talking points and the kinds of evasive language that George Orwell decried more than six decades ago in his essay, "Politics and the English Language." Not only are these questions of goodness very old, the non-stop array of charlatans ever posing as having the answers is so very disturbing.
Show us something new, ladies and gentlemen. Don't tell us that tax cuts or business incentives are the answers. We have seen during the last few years that placing our faith in "pro-business interests" is a losing proposition, since those men and women seem to believe only in living like the mythical dragons who breathed fire and terrorized villages when the hoards of treasure in their caves were threatened. Don't tell us two truths at once: that we are winning the wars but that we need to continue fighting for several more years to ensure the we do win. We have seen ten years of war that we hear has left our opponents groveling in caves and we now know that our debts from those wars are seemingly insurmountable. The answers to these questions of goodness must come from something other than tax cuts and more war when we are watching, literally, as the lack of goodness diminishes our overall quality of life. Take us somewhere better than tax cuts and war.
Once, I heard a former Civil Rights movement activist say about the current financial mess that you can't shame someone who has no shame. The people who have created this situation and the ones who continue to perpetrate it have shown the world that they have no shame. Any person with a sense of decency would not have done the things that have caused this: selling houses to people they knew could not pay for them, seeking loan guarantees for those bad loans to insure their own safety net, reducing oversight to allow bad deals to be made, then coming back smiling, blaming others, and asking us to be repeat customers, to have "brand loyalty." Come back for more, they say to us. Shameless.
Show us something new, you leaders. Show us a genuine concern for goodness. Show us something more than the symbolism that rolling up the sleeves on your starched button-down at a public appearance to make us believe you are ready to work. If you want our votes or our patronage, then show us that you have earned it. Show us how we can live well and happily. Because division, resentment and anger are not serving us well at all, and neither are the effects of the lies, deceit and manipulation that have brought us this far.
Politics is the process of working out our differences, not exacerbating them. For the sake of us all, including yourselves, show us -- don't tell us, show us -- that you can do that, if you want to be our leaders.
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