There is a story, now somewhat legendary, that John Kennedy once gave as a birthday present to his friend and court jester Dave Powers a silver mug with this engraving:
Only three things are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since we can do nothing with the first two, we must do what we can with the third.
Serious people increasingly find American politics an exhibition of human folly. And, though certain conservative forces have sought for some time to insert God into the equation, it borders on sacrilege to lay at His doorstep this human folly brought on as much by the God-politicizers as anyone.
Arguably the most profound political question of our time is how to treat with the ultimate seriousness it deserves a political process that seems to wish to spiral downward with almost demented insistence. Great leaders, including great presidents, inevitably have their flaws. This is so because they are humans and thus subject, to greater or lesser degrees, to errors of judgment and performance.
But what can account for the virtual disappearance of greatness in presidents, senators, members of Congress, governors and others? Thoughtful observers have sought to explain this by combining the disappearance of privacy, an intrusive media, exorbitant campaign costs, and the overall loss of dignity and respect for leadership. It goes without question that many of the best, the most capable, the most honorable people in our society shun elective and, in too many cases, even appointive office.
Is it possible today to be a visible public servant and retain a sense of honor, dignity, and self-respect? All the leveling forces at work in our society would seem to answer no.
To follow the Kennedy prescription, then, is to resort to laughter. And many are doing so. Edward R. Murrow has been replaced by John Stewart and Walter Cronkite by Stephen Colbert. Thus laughter is not only the best medicine, it is the most effective way of responding to human folly on a political scale.
Students of American history know this is not without precedent. Ridiculous eras in times past have always produced a Will Rogers or even a W. C. Fields. Such figures have served our nation well and enabled us to laugh our way through tough times. But, sooner or later, reality requires us to confront our conditions and devise solutions or find those who can. When the laughter dies, as inevitably it must, we are still faced with unemployment, homelessness, hunger, and sickness.
For many of us, politics is not the art of making the rich richer in the hope they will dispense a farthing or two in the beggars cup or the church collection plate. A thousand points of light do not begin to dent the misery abroad today in every American city and throughout our countryside. Politics, to paraphrase one of Plato's dialogues, is the art of caring for souls.
So, while witnessing widespread human folly and praying that a kind God will somehow raise up great leaders, we must laugh. But, as the great bards of history have demonstrated the proximity of comedy and tragedy, let us late at night in the privacy of our own dwellings shed a tear for those whom Fortune has not favored, for the impoverished child who has yet to learn the cause of our laughter.
~ Kittredge, Colorado
Follow Gary Hart on Twitter: www.twitter.com/gary__hart
I like what Gary Hart is saying here -- the humor of a Stewart, a Colbert, is an antidote to the arrogance and certainty relied upon by ideology preventing us from finding a range of possible responses to the problems we face. These humorists point out the absurdity of calcified thinking. We need someone to show us when the "joke" is on us. Laughter gives me fresh air and in that a humility and some joy that makes growth possible.
A great leader requires an honest open relationship with the people to build trust. It's the opaqueness that creates the uncertainty that causes us to question our leaders. It's one thing to hold your cards close to your chest and quite another to obfuscate the truth. The American people can forgive almost anything, except lying. The dissatisfaction with our current leaders simply stems from that simple fact, many of them are lying. We use euphemisms like flip-flop, spineless, or pandering to be polite but the simple fact is that the candidate is lying to the American people. Show me an honest candidate and I'll show you a winner, that is why the establishment is terrified by Ron Paul.
leading finally to a direct violation of international law makeing the absurd claim of fear of imminent attack and the annoucnement of Condoleezza Rice and othere that international law doesn't really apply to us. Then turning around and demanding Iran prove the neagetice of not planning for nuclear weapons based on a treaty we say is really not applicable in the new age...
1) Everyone is looking for a "savior". Someone to save us even if it's from ourselves.
2) Everyone seems to ask or expect something from government by by connection, country.
1) It has been my experience that blessings tend to come most often when we put forth our own great effort. If I wait for someone to "save" me I find it works best only after I have exhausted all avenues to save myself. If I am drowning it is best to do all I can to save myself rather than just laying back waiting on divine intervention.
2) This country was built on sacrifice. People working together to achieve common goals. Have we lost this? I remember well the words of John F. Kennedy. " Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". Those words should be burned into the minds of every American. What have you done to make America a better place? What have you done to make America a better place for your children and grandchildren?
Individuals may not always prevail in every debate. Like any great team, defeat must only make us more determined. Before anything though we must all be Americans first. Does it really matter if we win the ideological battles if in the end we lose our country and all that it stands for?
The military industrial complex controlling foreign policy for profit and global hegemony. The gradual erosion of all the gains made by Labor and the Communist party, in favor of complete corporate control. This was easily achieved through the evolution of television, propaganda, media control, empty showmanship, greed motivated capitalism, and the personal and collective narcissism that results.
Our cultural immersion in materialism over our connection to nature and the inability to satiate that constant quest for the novel, is steering Western culture and corporate controlled capitalism toward a precipice. Our disconnectedness to our own surroundings, and our ambivalence towards our environment and the conquering and ravaging of it, rather than a smooth integration within it, could well be mankind's ultimate downfall.
I for one, am not willing to accede to this collective irresponsibility, short sightedness and willful ignorance in the face of all we've learned from history, philosophy and science.
It's past time for a paradigm shift, in all areas and every single archaic and outdated power structure, globally. We have the technology to throw away the shackles of representative democracy, the coercive farming and exploitation of human beings for profit, and embrace a real democratic movement for the first time in history.
We need to demand it now, universally.
We must not discard our constitution. Rather we must live and work together within its framework. Permitting one person or one elite sect or privileged population to command the rest is a direct assault on our constitution and civilized leadership.
We are a spec of dust even within our own solar system let alone this Universe...
All Religions are nothing more than Tribal Cults...
I'm not saying there is no Consciousness that we call God, just that we are not the center of it's interest or central to any plan just a small insignificant part of the material Universe...
We're on our own and if we were gone tomorrow this entire planet the Universe would continue and our demise would go unnoticed...
All Organized Religion is perverse, corrupt and an enclave for division within the family of man...
I think Ron Paul is the best Republican candidate at the moment and the corrupt Republican Party and the financial elite seems to have been caught off-guard. They didn't intend to allow somebody potent into the race that weren't corrupt or controllable.