Not in Our Time
“Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?” With those words King Hezekiah comforted himself while setting aside Isaiah’s warnings that his descendants and his kingdom’s wealth would be taken by the Babylonians. Millennia later, a “not in my time” attitude is one of our most formidable cultural and political challenges. Too many seem to say, “tomorrow—leave that to the forecasters” (and chance).
Unlike the prophet Isaiah, today’s prophets (really forecasters) rely on facts, human assumptions, mathematics, and the processing power of computers. Daily we see new forecasts on entitlement shortfalls, prospects for global warming, troubling trend lines of wealth distribution, and the like. Paired with these forecasts is the predictable polemic. Outspoken, often stridently partisan spokespersons sound off, either apocalyptic or dismissive, like fireworks in a celebration gone awry. Assumptions are attacked; common ground is infrequently sought. For the self-comfortable, the level of disagreement is sufficient for at least the subconscious to mutter, “not in my time.”
King Hezekiah was warned that some of his descendants would be made eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon. While today’s warnings do not anticipate the castration of our children or grandchildren, many of them forecast significant economic burdens at a moment in history when economic structure is rapidly changing.
At the turn of the century, the United States possessed about 23 percent of the world’s wealth. This outsized status was in part due to the fact that many of our competitors spent the second half of the twentieth century recovering from war while many others suffered under state-dominated economic systems. As China and India lead the developing world in embracing market-oriented economics, these favorable circumstances for the US are vanishing. While the growth of world markets will be an advantage to the best educated and most enterprising regardless of nationality, those whose incomes are tied to lesser value-added jobs will face increasing pressure. And as the US economic advantage erodes, issues dealing with intergenerational bookkeeping will become even more difficult to resolve.
At this point the temptation is to review unfunded liabilities (Social Security, Medicare, public pension obligations), profligate consumerism (energy consumption and pollution), and severe educational gaps. But these subjects are so well known that the briefest mention quickly shapes a word picture in our mind. It’s the cognitive dissonance that is most alarming. Able people of good will could solve or at least ameliorate these troubling conditions, but to date partisan and ideological cleavages have largely immobilized so-called government leaders. The culture of short-termism has been a useful ally to the partisans.
Relatedly, we in the US have been willing to fight two wars with about 1 percent of our citizens. Nations should fight wars, or they should not be fought. We should not all be asked to become soldiers, but we should all be rallied to provide war-footing financial support, to aid the families whose sons and daughters have risked or given their lives, and to personally help rebuild the nations we have attacked. This is our time, and leaders across the full social and governmental spectrum should inspire us to play constructive roles.
We are now embarked on what will undoubtedly prove to be the longest political campaign on record. I believe we are turning so early to selecting our next leader because of a profound discomfort in the current relationship between the elected and the voters. Simply stated, I believe voters sense that to candidates the game has become more important than the outcome. Missing so far from twenty-first century political rhetoric is reciprocal obligation. Candidates who seek to govern, if they are to be trusted, must talk about the obligations of the governed. The best leaders inform and inspire.
Sure, we all suffer to some degree from a “not in our time” mentality. But the history of our country convinces me that the vast majority is eager to elevate political discourse and decision-making and is looking for leadership that will help us do just that.
Al Sikes, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, is a Trustee of The Trinity Forum. He formed Hearst Interactive Media and continues as a consultant to the Hearst Corporation, and is the founder and chair of the Reading Excellence and Discovery Foundation.
6 Responses (comments are closed) • Provocations, Leadership, Society, Thu 12 Apr 2007
