The ugly spectacle of political gridlock reflects a political culture best described as insane. It's increasingly disconnected from realities of our current world. We're living in the midst of massive, worldwide transformation towards a highly intertwined and increasingly transparent world. The impact of this transformation is visible in economic shifts, new political movements, changing social norms and personal values, business practices and in individual behavior.
The products of this transformation call for policies and actions that respond to them in pragmatic, positive ways. But here in the U.S., our political culture of both left and right operates as though these new realities either don't exist or don't matter; as though the old order still prevails.
Examples of the political insanity include:
Contrast the above positions and policy objectives with some of the transformations whose impact is increasingly visible in everyone's lives. On the surface, they appear disparate; unrelated. But collectively, you can see a theme: A rising change of mentality. That is, a mixture of values, world outlook, emotional attitudes, and conduct. It's simultaneously a response to and a driver of the rise of interconnection and interdependency. And it has cascading political, economic and social implications.
Here are some of the seemingly unrelated shifts that reflect the reality of today's world:
The new realities are marked by some common themes. For example, sharing and preserving resources for the public good; embracing and valuing innovation; openness to diverse people and rejection of hierarchical rank based on status. These themes contrast with the old order -- fear of change; holding onto having and getting for oneself; the desire to believe and go along with actions that are ultimately destructive, as a former GOP operative recently described.
This is, essentially, a clash between those who cling to an old model of an older world -- holding on to power that's shared mostly by the powerful, with some concern given here and there to the poor, the needy and minorities -- and those reflecting the shift of mentality towards raising all people towards more egalitarian sharing of resources and opportunity for increasing well-being.
The apparent insanity dominating our political culture reflects, to a great extent, a fear response to the disintegration of the old order and what it exposes. The transformation calls for actions that recognize and deal with them in social and public policies. But our political culture either ignores, denies or fails to understand them.
But the new realities are recognized and addressed by people outside the political culture, writing from different perspectives. Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne and others have written about the fear of transparency, for example. From an international perspective, Fareed Zakaria has written that economic growth outside the U.S. raises the question of how the U.S. can understand and thrive in this rapidly changing international climate, and what it means to live in a global era. Others, such as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman have described the implications of worldwide transformation, as has Umair Haque, writing for the Harvard Business Review blog.
Who within the political arena today shows the awareness, connection with and understanding of the realities of transformation today? Who is articulating ways to address their impact, socially, economically, psychologically and through constructive policy?
Readers: If you have any examples of such people, post them in your comments!
Douglas LaBier, Ph.D., is director of the Center for Progressive Development in Washington, D.C. You may contact him at dlabier@CenterProgressive.org. To learn more about him, click here.
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The political leader you speak of is not anyone I know or have even seen.
But environmental leaders who embody the attributes you cite, abound!
Bill McKibbon for President
Jim Hansen, Mike Tidwell...
How do we get them and their "kind" to run for office?
Who within the political arena today shows the awareness, connection with and understanding of the realities of transformation today? Who is articulating ways to address their impact, socially, economically, psychologically and through constructive policy?
Readers: If you have any examples of such people, post them in your comments!
Well, if it's not too self-referential, ME!!! Anyone any more intelligent or compassionate that anyone can put a name to, hmm? Offhand? Someone who's maybe getting by on around twelve thousand dollars a year or so, in order to free up time to try to help not only humans, but also the natural systems most of them currently seem hell-bent on destroying as quickly as possible?
The more I see of humanity and its apparent determination to sell itself to the highest bidder, the more I admire my cats and my apartment... Or, as Horace Mann put it, 'We go by the major vote, and if the majority are insane, the sane must go to the hospital.'
If you want to look forward then recognize the new power game and engage in it. Play hardball against the filibuster, don't just whine about it and excuse another two years of bad governance with it.
I don't believe this, I just am pointing out the uselessness of a two party system where one is clearly for a set of values antithetical to the well-being of the majority, and they are opposed only by a party that is divided in it's purpose, and is effectively useless.
What I do believe is that we are in another cycle of runaway avarice and concentrated power. It has happened before every two decades or so before 1920. After the '20's we figured some stuff out and imposed controls. They worked. The Greedy guys with future Justice Powell figured out in the '70's that the controls were stifling their acquisitive urges and embarked on a systematic effort to remove the protections. It worked, and now too many of us think it was magic. It was a planned takeover. We need a leader who will take a stand for the People, and she isn't in one of the two major parties.
Used wisely to counter self-destructive policies, such as the complete and total dismantling of the social safety net, Democrats are wise to keep the filibuster even though they may gripe about how it has been used.
The bigger concern from my perspective is the influence of money in politics. It poisons everything it touches.