Decline Of Leadership

Remember once upon a time when “America” and “Leadership” were virtually synonymous?  For our first 150 years, America was pretty much a rogue upstart in the family of nations.  An object of curiosity, an attraction to many who would come here, yet a model that few nations cared to emulate.  Instead, they were busy playing out their historical roles of kings and empires, living on the myth of a past history of leadership that was in steady and irrevocable decline.

Then came World War II.  America stepped into that chaotic horror as the sleeping giant now awakened, acknowledged by all as the latest big kid on the block.  Even America’s one-time ally, the USSR, would ultimately capitulate after 45 years of competition with America for supremacy.  By demonstrating its economic and military supremacy, America’s unique governmental and social forms became the ideal to follow, the model to copy.

America led.  Led the way in such things as human rights, economic growth, manufacturing, distribution of wealth across its citizenry, entertainment forms, republican style of government, rules of fair play and social conscience in the workplace, and in science and technology.  Almost as proof of our leadership, we landed two men on the moon; fantasy became reality, expanding our collective soul while fulfilling the imaginations of eons of dreamers.  We were a nation, and individual persons, that seemingly could achieve anything we put our mind to.

In fairness, it was not done without some stumbles, mistakes, wrong turns, and great resistance along the way.  We inappropriately meddled in other people’s governments too often.  We fought a stupid war in Viet Nam, learned little from it, and fought two more stupid wars two generations later.  Realizing the promise of equal rights had to overcome frightening and recurring violence, and these efforts to make these things right still continue.  Government irrevocably lost its aura of idealism late one night in a dark office building called Watergate.  And economic growth repeatedly veered in and out of downturns as large American corporations became increasingly more concerned about executive wealth and short-term corporate earnings than providing good products and services inside strong, long-term balance sheets.  In spite of the shortcomings, we still led.

Thirteen years ago, we passed into a new year, a new century, a new millennium.  With the occurrence of such a rare event, we could not help but collectively expect that a time of big change might likely be beginning.  And in fact, the last decade has proven itself to be such a changing time for Americans.  Unfortunately, it has mostly been a time of negative change.  Two wars have exhausted and nearly bankrupted us.  A constant threat of danger from external terrorists and internal psychopaths, both armed to kill innocent bystanders in large numbers, have left us in an ongoing, often-times irrational, fear of each other.  We have had an extreme economic collapse that has harmed versus rewarded people with no sense of fairness, nor accountability for those who caused it.  The “can do” America we have known has become the “can’t do much of anything” we know now, paralyzed by an inept national government representing a country divided in its sense of direction and solutions.  It is not clear we are even unified in our goals, hence no common ground seemingly can be found in our proposed solutions.

Yesterday, America fell over a cliché called the “fiscal cliff.”  The cliff was a self-imposed, suicide bullet of artificial legislation that was supposed to force unwilling lawmakers to come together and do something together in spite of themselves.  Instead, it has simply declared for all to see how far we have fallen from our high place of leadership.  Leadership by example has been replaced by Failure by example.  The small-minded thinkers who now occupy our Congress and statehouses will likely stumble and bumble their way to some small countermeasures to mitigate some of the possible consequences of this fall.  But they will be actions of retreat, not actions of leadership.

We have been so quick to arrogantly criticize other nations as they have grappled with their economic struggles, their governmental changes, their Arab Spring revolutions.  But we have very visibly lost our claim of a leadership role either internationally or here at home, because we have become a nation of problem makers, not problem solvers.  It is all our separate parts continually fighting with each other in a “no surrender” death spiral that has crippled our country.  We must stop this madness, and come back to our overriding commonality that honors and benefits all.  A shared willingness to let each person have a piece of the action and the reward, and to leave each other alone towards finding their own form of happiness.  Doing nothing, staying on this course, American leadership will continue a steady march into irrelevance.  Like the European nations of a hundred years ago, we will become another nation living on its fading past history instead of being an energized, driving force toward greatness.

This is the leadership cliff.  It can be a long fall from a high place of honor, respect and emulation.  Leadership, like reputation, is a fragile thing.  So very hard to first achieve; so easily and quickly lost if not cared for highly responsibly.  Today, we are treating our leadership highly irresponsibly.  It is reversible.  But our margin of time to do so is getting shorter with each day.  We will likely not even realize that it has passed us by until well after the fact.  Turning around this big ship of state to a new course will not be easy.  It will not be quick.  And it will require a great number of us to accomplish it.  But it all needs to be soon.  This is the challenge of, and the needed resolution for, this New Year of 2013.