Many leaders in our society are guided by unhealthy intentions. Instead of trying to serve the people and heal the ills of our nation, their actions and decisions are motivated primarily by a desire for power. Many of the people that our country are run by their addictions to approval, sex, power and control. Unfortunately, few people really want to sound required to submit to the abuses inherent to our political races - the verbal abuse both given and received huge amounts of money spent, the integrity sacrificed through the concessions, lies and manipulations offered in order to win. Our system of electing our officials is so corrupt that there is little chance of attracting a person with a strong, personally responsible, self loving inner adult. This does not mean that none of our elected representatives are honest and caring. Some are certainly motivated by positive intentions but, unfortunately, they constitute a minority.
There is no training required in personal responsibility of candidates. Our leaders are not required to treat the dysfunctional aspects in order to become honest and trustworthy. The prerequisites for political positions mostly include having enough money, enough powerful behind the scenes, being male and being white.
Our political scene has been designed to attract people injured who need approval and power in order to feel worthy and validated. Obviously, such a person, with little or no internally derived sense of self and integrity, is very susceptible to corruption. As the saying goes: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Power corrupts when a person is motivated by his desire for power over others, and few people have made enough inner healing to transcend the desire to control others.
A healthy person in office who is more interested in serving the people ever elected could make a big deal. Such a person was depicted in the movie Dave. In this film, the current president is in a coma and White House officials, trying to hide the truth from the public in order to maintain control, put a double instead of president. Dave, however, is a man of heart, and rather than be controlled is put on the necessary changes - cutting money where it is not necessary, and allocating more critical avenues, like child care and creating jobs. It also takes responsibility for the corruption of the president and owner gracefully "dies" as the current president is dying so the vice-president, a man of great integrity who was maligned by the power structure, could take over his rightful place. The film is obviously a fantasy. Unfortunately, we never elected a man of such integrity - a simple, honest, caring, financially and middle class like Dave. Our electoral process does not allow for this.
Revamping our election process would give people like Dave an opportunity to stand for election. We desperately need people who care more for the common good than for their own popularity. We need bright, creative, honest and caring people to lead our country, but this will not happen with our current electoral system. We have incredible talent in this great country of ours, talent that could eliminate hunger and homelessness, and heal the internal wounds that create health problems, drug abuse, racism, violence and crime. But this talent is rarely used because our country was based on land values of greed and power over others, rather than the spiritual values of honesty, compassion and care.
Unfortunately, neither our government nor most big businesses are based on spiritual principles of compassion and concern for the common good. I have no doubt that if our government was based on spiritual principles we would not have hunger, homelessness, crime, health problems and drug abuse that are endemic in our modern society.
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