"Surf's up!"
This speaks to the thrill of being one of the bronzed bodies on one of the world's golden beaches. But the thrill lasts only so long as the surf is rolling your way.
Most of us in the Western world find we have ridden the surf of history rather successfully. What's more, we often attribute this success to our democracy. For us, democracy has worked out pretty well. At least it seems that way, for Western democracies today are the most industrialized, most educated, and most wealthy in the world.
However, we often forget it wasn't always this way. At one time, Europe and North America were well behind both the dynamics of human evolution and the trajectory of human history. But then we caught up. And then over the last 500 years, things went so well, it tempts many of us into presuming this was meant to be. And that this lovely concept of democracy was the force-of-energy behind it all.
My goodness, isn't that why the rest of the world is trying its darnedest to become democracies just like us!
Leaving behind the arrogance of that question, what the Western democracies should really be asking is: Are we up to the sudden challenge of today's powerful shift in the surf and surge of history...?
It makes no real difference who sits in the White House or in the chambers of the EU. Lately, the tides of history seem to be running against us. Western leaders of every party and in every nation now behold such extraordinary challenges as: Climate change...civilizational terrorism...financial collapses...mass unemployment ...rising new superpowers ...angry populations of poor raging at home against any target they can find from governments to pensions to plutocrats
Precisely when Western democracies need to be most creative and decisive, creativity has surrendered to sound-bite solutions. And decision-making mechanisms have been clogged by the buying power of the plutocrats and the obsessions of never-give-an-inch politicians.
OK, lets switch the imagery from surf-swept beaches to the frontier town's biggest gunslinger. After 500 year's of buying up the town and running the frontier, life for you out here has quickly turned bad. The banks, the weather, and the natives are all out of control. Just then in ride some brash, gun-itchy newcomers. If at any time you needed a fast draw, this is it! Only your gun is stuck inside a very clogged holster....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment