Judging by what’s going on in my town of Altadena, and even further out into the city, state, and across the entire nation, it appears that people have a very low opinions of those in leadership positions. Could it be that our form of government is no longer working as it was intended?
Nationally and even internationally, it appears that people are revolting against “the status quo” forms of government. Much of this may be because the world is facing very trying financial times. The world’s economy is sick and suffering greatly. Naturally those who are in charge of leadership are blamed for the problems we’re facing.
Take a look at the U.S. government. We are a democracy, which supposedly give the people a large say in how we are governed. But is that really true? Do “the people” actually participate in setting the laws, rules, and boundaries whereby they are governed? Apparently not! If so there would not be this much unrest.
If you had looked ahead in time from the period of the 1960s and 70s you wouldn’t have imagined how little people would be paying attention and getting involved in how they are governed in current times. Back then people rebelled against poor government to the point that the regime that was in control would be ousted if they did a poor job.
However today we are looking at more of a “me generation.” People are not as concerned about society, the public, or even the nation as much as they are about their individual gains. “What’s in it for ME.”
Because of this people in government routinely get away with very poor political decisions, at least until it hits individuals squarely in their pockets. Who cares about the poor, the needy, the helpless, the starving, and the hungry as long as it is not “me” doing the suffering? This is more of the attitude of the common people.
Think about it! If you are not currently in default with your mortgage or behind in paying most of your credit bills, or going hungry at night, just how much can you relate to those who are currently suffering?
If crime is not prevalent in your neighborhood, but instead across town how concerned are you about the crime reports? If things aren’t directly affecting you, just how much worry do you give the situation? Think about it!
We’re living in a “me generation.” Somehow we’ve lost part of the brotherhood that connected us as people. Perhaps this is due in part because current technology allows us to be more independent than in times past.
Currently we can connect to world affairs almost instantaneously concerning things that could alter our prosperity. Rather than going through intermediaries we can access information ourselves and thereby take care of our situations, with no “middle man.”
Since we’re learning to trust in our resources more than we trust in institutional resources we no longer rely upon them. This would include people in government of which we already have a very low opinion… for very good reasons.
There was a day when politicians were considered to be dirty, but we couldn’t prove it so people had to go along with their programs. However in this day everything is more transparent. It is not that leaders prefer it this way, but that current technology makes it possible for us to see things clearly as they are happening.
Where in the recent past political dirt (backdoor politics) was done in the dark, today it is done right out in the light of the media. This technological curve happened so relatively fast that people did not learn how to make the proper adjustments before their dirt was fully exposed to the public. Hence too many government officials were exposed, (caught literally with their pants down) thereby painting a bad picture of people in leadership.
Rather than ordinarily trusting in government and leadership, as was the case in the past, the “new ordinary” is to mistrust them. In fact it would be more rare to find an honest trustworthy politician these days than it would be to find a crooked one, at least by public consensus.
This is why we are becoming more of a “me generation.” We’d rather not trust the idiots we see almost daily in the media making fools of themselves.
While it’s good that we take responsibility for our actions we must be careful not to get overly involved in the “me generation.” Yes, self-preservation is a good thing, but our personal gain at the expense of others is not usually a win/win equation.
If we are to grow as a society we must make sure we do it together, not as one person at the expense of others. We need to tell the people we elected in government that this is not their show, but our lives they are abusing. In addition we need to let them know this by using the only real power we have, and that is in our right to vote them out in the next free elections.
Remember our government officials are elected or otherwise hired to do their jobs by the people and it is for the people that they should be serving. When they do a poor job we must let them know by firing them.
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