America Needs Citizen Leaders

Bob Herbert wrote an elegant and accurate piece on the lack of leadership in this country. Entitled Long On Rhetoric, Short On Sorrow it really hits home not only on the bankruptcy of Bush politics, but on the timidity of Democrats in speaking up and forging radically different and necessary policy.

Admittedly, Senator Webb's response was a bright spot after the president's dismal "business as usual" State of the Union speech.

But Webb is only one man of moderate opinions, whereas we need a nation full of vocal activists. It will take a national movement to reclaim our higher ideals and create real solutions in regard to Global Warming, energy independence, restoring the financial strength of the middle class, alleviating the poverty of fifty million Americans, effecting election reform and restructuring corporate law so that we may stem the tide of corporatism and the threat of fascism (the merging of corporate and government power) which, if this merger continues unchecked, will control every aspect of our lives including ownership of our DNA.

Mr. Herbert suggests that the empty hole in our nation - which should be filled by educated, intelligent, enlightened and socially progressive leaders - must now be filled by her citizens. He believes each citizen must now rise to the occasion, get involved, become informed, run for local office, etc.

I agree that we lack leadership and that it is past time for the average citizen to educate him or herself and take the reins.

Yet, given our national addiction to escapist entertainment of all kinds - television, pornography, alcohol, gambling, shopping and video games - I'm not sure we have the time to devote to politics. After all, was it not our topsy-turvy priorities that allowed a man like George Bush to be elected?

The fact is that, as an electorate, we prefer to be convinced by sound bites instead of facts and prefer the immediate satisfaction of attacking science as opposed to the sustained effort needed to understand it.

Likewise, instead of thoroughly researching the positions of candidates and contemplating the gray areas of issues, we prefer quick and easy, black and white answers such as "voting makes no difference."

Why? Because becoming well-informed takes so much time. Because it is so humbling - and makes us feel so insecure - to realize our deficiencies in critical thinking. It can feel overwhelming when we first begin to sort through the enormous amounts of information (and misinformation) that abound and determine the truth about a person or an issue.

Yet developing critical thinking - being able to separate allegation from truth and supposition from fact, and then acting through our knowledge to bring about the highest good - this is what growing up is all about.

America is, sadly, a nation filled with adult children who refuse to grow up.

A growing percentage of our younger citizens - predominantly males - are remaining in adolescence far beyond their twenties or thirties. Many are living at home, have never had what we consider a "real" job and spend their lives in imaginary worlds such as those created by video games. They do not take responsibility for their familes or the fate of their nation, much less the world. Yet this is not just an American phenomena. Rehab centers for video games addicts – mostly males – are popping up all over Europe.

I suppose we can blame corporations for moving jobs overseas so "real" jobs don't exist. We can also blame corporations for creating all these "entertainment" distractions for ourselves and our youth. We can certainly blame the corporations that control media for “dumbing down” our nation and misinforming us but, really, that will hardly help us in the long run.

We must understand that the buck stops with each of us, with the choices each person and each family makes. It is our responsibility to understand when we are being manipulated, betrayed and sold down the river, and to object.

It is our responsibility to realize that injustice anywhere is, as Martin Luther King said, “a threat to justice anywhere.” If we are unwilling to look up long enough to see the big picture, if we insist on remaining narcissistic, if we prefer apathy and cynicism, well, as the saying goes: a nation gets the leaders it deserves.

It seems to be a characteristic of Americans that we seek to be entertained above all else. Contrast this with the idea that being an adult means – above all - taking political and moral responsibility for one's family, nation and the state of world.

The tale is told in this statistic: only 41% of us bother to vote. Within this group is the 5% that controls the wealth of this nation and which votes to maintain its own political power. Aided by religious fundamentalists (who vote in droves for socially oppressive policies) and upper class wannabes, this group of voters - approximately 21% of those eligible to vote - has worked to elect Republicans who have implemented extreme political and economic policies that oppress the poor (not just in the U.S. but around the world), extol imperialism, create war, erode civil liberties and contribute to the degradation of the planet.

20% vote against these policies.

The other 59% who do not vote - many of whom are poor and disadvantaged - may well be noticing that that their quality of life is deteriorating even futher and may be disgusted. But unless significant numbers of them are ready to rise up out of indifference to make a difference in the real world, then nothing much is going to change for the better.

To educate oneself about what is going on takes time and effort, the reward for which comes in the long, not the short term.

Can the majority of Americans change from short term to long term thinking? Mr. Herbert thinks so. I hope he's right, otherwise those who insist on escaping from the pain of responsibility now will be caught - along with the rest of us - by the pain of consequences yet to come.