Monday morning, crisis check. Thinking back to the brief time I spent in the C suite, Monday morning came with a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door. Reports were gathered. Metrics were checked. Progress factored. We met at 11:00 over lunch. Numbers were totaled. Projections confirmed. Consequences addressed. The staff would be told on Tuesday.
Were I to perform the same checks and balances on the world this morning, the results would show that we have a crisis; specifically, a crisis of leadership. The United States. Syria. South Korea. Europe. Israel. Haiti. The planet. The compiled bullet points for the presentation would be:
Populism is at the root
The crises were largely democratically elected
Each crisis was predicted
Humanity is not eligible for a pardon
Only the strongest response staves off disaster
Try choking that down with a dry sandwich and a weak soda. Pass the Scotch.
We have walked ourselves into a global oligarchy run by billionaires. Billionaires are inherently corrupt and bad governors. They cannot comprehend your concerns. Looking at the world through charts and graphs, they don’t see how their policies affect lives outside their elite peer group. When challenged, their defense is, “You voted for this.”
I see little stomach for protests. In his essay “A Poem of Difficult Hope,” which appears in his book “What Are People For,” Kentucky naturalist Wendell Berry argues that the success of any protest should not be measured by whether it changes the world in the way we hope it will.
“Much protest is naïve; it expects quick, visible improvement and despairs and gives up when such improvement does not come,” he wrote in 1990. “If protest depended on success, there would be little protest of any durability or significance. History simply affords too little evidence that anyone’s individual protest is of any use. Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success: namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one’s own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence.”
I’m not sure I buy this “save yourself” attitude. Others are. There are no massive marches planned. My newsfeed and emails all say, “We’re going to fight them in court.” What good is that if the courts themselves are corrupted? Have you looked at the Supreme Court lately?
Having the power doesn’t mean we have the will. Can we tell ourselves ‘no?’ Can we hold back on our holiday spending? Can we stay home instead of eating out? Can we cook instead of ordering takeout? Can we make last year’s coats and sweaters last another season? Can we put off buying a newer vehicle?
As I’m typing, I received an alert from my bank. Overdraft -$65. Not buying just got very easy. There are no presents to hand out. The food that we have will last until January. We will endure. Venmo: @C_I_Letbetter. CashApp: $ciletbetter.
No crisis comes with an easy or painless solution. Progress requires more than sheer determination. Tell me when you’re ready to proceed. You’ll find me at the coffee pot.
Monday morning, crisis check. Thinking back to the brief time I spent in the C suite, Monday morning came with a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door. Reports were gathered. Metrics were checked. Progress factored. We met at 11:00 over lunch. Numbers were totaled. Projections confirmed. Consequences addressed. The staff would be told on Tuesday.
Were I to perform the same checks and balances on the world this morning, the results would show that we have a crisis; specifically, a crisis of leadership. The United States. Syria. South Korea. Europe. Israel. Haiti. The planet. The compiled bullet points for the presentation would be:
Try choking that down with a dry sandwich and a weak soda. Pass the Scotch.
We have walked ourselves into a global oligarchy run by billionaires. Billionaires are inherently corrupt and bad governors. They cannot comprehend your concerns. Looking at the world through charts and graphs, they don’t see how their policies affect lives outside their elite peer group. When challenged, their defense is, “You voted for this.”
I see little stomach for protests. In his essay “A Poem of Difficult Hope,” which appears in his book “What Are People For,” Kentucky naturalist Wendell Berry argues that the success of any protest should not be measured by whether it changes the world in the way we hope it will.
“Much protest is naïve; it expects quick, visible improvement and despairs and gives up when such improvement does not come,” he wrote in 1990. “If protest depended on success, there would be little protest of any durability or significance. History simply affords too little evidence that anyone’s individual protest is of any use. Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success: namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one’s own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence.”
I’m not sure I buy this “save yourself” attitude. Others are. There are no massive marches planned. My newsfeed and emails all say, “We’re going to fight them in court.” What good is that if the courts themselves are corrupted? Have you looked at the Supreme Court lately?
What oligarchs understand is money. Finance is where the battle is fought. Switching investments from the stock market to bonds could offset bad economic plans. Organized national work stoppages, like those being utilized by VW workers in Germany, cause oligarchs to panic. We hold power that we’ve yet to test. Senate confirms a bad appointee? We don’t work the next day. Just one day. Tariffs cause prices to skyrocket? We stop buying. Just one week. The effects would be immediate and stunning.
Having the power doesn’t mean we have the will. Can we tell ourselves ‘no?’ Can we hold back on our holiday spending? Can we stay home instead of eating out? Can we cook instead of ordering takeout? Can we make last year’s coats and sweaters last another season? Can we put off buying a newer vehicle?
As I’m typing, I received an alert from my bank. Overdraft -$65. Not buying just got very easy. There are no presents to hand out. The food that we have will last until January. We will endure. Venmo: @C_I_Letbetter. CashApp: $ciletbetter.
No crisis comes with an easy or painless solution. Progress requires more than sheer determination. Tell me when you’re ready to proceed. You’ll find me at the coffee pot.
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