Archive for Rant
American Twilight—Part 4
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“The success of a party,” Woodrow Wilson claimed, “means little except when the nation is using that party for a large and definite purpose.” By this standard, both of the parties that currently dominate the American political landscape are failures. The Republicans are handicapped by an ideology holding that it is somehow possible to pursue big-spending conservatism at home and an interventionist military program abroad while cutting taxes repeatedly. The Democrats, meanwhile, are paralyzed by the micro-agendas of countless feuding lobbies and other factions. Unfortunately, as a nation we currently stand at something of a crossroads. As a people we need to choose the road less traveled if we are to have any hope of addressing problems long overlooked. And, if both history and recent events, particularly the debate related to the just-passed stimulus bill, are any indication, our political leaders will not choose that road of their own accord.
In this era of an increasingly moderate populace, perhaps it is time for an even larger populist reorientation of the status quo. Even though confidence in government, business, and church remain at all-time lows, Americans themselves continue to become more informed and more sophisticated, thanks in large part to the Internet and, more recently, to the all-pervasive activist phenomena surrounding the social networking sphere. Surely this cultural growth, with a nudge from the proper quarters, can be redirected toward increased civic participation, as well? As our nation moves boldy into the post-industrial age, our citizens-the real stakeholders in our government-need to begin to take back some of the power that rightly belongs to them. We’ve just seen a President who campaigned on a platform bearing remarkable similarities to several of the statements made above-we’ll see if his policies actually deliver on the promises; we’ll see if the invitations extended to the common man during the election will hold true beyond the administration’s first challenging year.
But it would be short-sighted, especially in the face of our current laundry list of crises, to assume that governmental reform alone represents an adequate beginning. A similar awakening needs to occur in corporate America, as well. As Halstead writes in his well-known essay, “American Paradox,” “The only way to free both major parties from the minoritarian groups that now wag the dog—whether teachers’ unions or moral fundamentalists—is for Americans to re-enter the political process en masse…Like an unused muscle, collective power need only be exercised to regain its inherent strength.” For our nation to move forward and regain a semblance of its former stature—both moral and economic—on the world stage, it will require the collective efforts of a populace that has become increasingly jaded and suspicious over the past decade. Do we have what it takes to rise to the challenge, to do what we’ve done so many times before? I’d like to think so. But like it or not, a storm is brewing as we stand on the cusp of the new millennium. How we weather the storm, how we reinvent ourselves as a nation, and how we finally face many of issues we’ve spent the last century avoiding—each of these things will determine the ultimate role that America will play in the 21st Century, both on the world stage and in the lives of its citizens.
American Twilight—Part 3
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As we approach the second decade of the 21st Century, this atmosphere of elitism continues to gain momentum, and its consequences grow more far-reaching every day. For a variety of reasons, our political system has gradually nurtured and perpetuated a climate of popular exclusion. Even as 21st Century media outlets and the Internet cast stark illumination on the worst examples of the system, the general level of public apathy towards government, coupled with a sense that non-participation has become the norm, provide windows into a larger crisis of social conscience. Of course, exceptions do exist (witness the 2004 Howard Dean and 1992 Ross Perot presidential campaigns, as well as the recent Obama campaign), but people no longer trust their government as they once did. In an age where sitting presidents are accused of infidelity and worse, where elected officials regularly grace the pages of magazines like People and US Weekly, perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us when average citizens begin to buy into pieces of one fringe conspiracy theory or another. Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us when the average citizen feels more like a victim than a voice. The American political stage of the new millennium, while more open in many ways, has certainly become far less trusting and participatory than at any other time in the history of our country.
In fact, overall trust in most organizations in this country has fallen considerably over the past few decades. Trust in our government crested in 1966 and has dropped by about half since then. A scant sixteen percent of Americans, as opposed to fifty-five percent in 1966, claim to have “a great deal of confidence” in major corporations, and with the scandals sweeping both Wall Street and corporate America these days, these numbers are sure to fall even further. Only twenty-three percent of Americans say that they trust organized religion, again down by about half since the mid-sixties. And once again, the recent scandals sweeping through the Catholic Church-and the Church’s seeming inability to satisfactorily rectify these crises-will probably affect these numbers, as well. Finally, and perhaps most telling, the percentage of Americans who say they trust other people has fallen to thirty percent, down from a high of about fifty-five percent in the early sixties. Disturbing trends, to be sure, but perhaps not surprising in light of the events of the past half-century.
And as we enter an era where a growing and increasingly vocal minority label themselves “Independent” with regard to party affiliation, perhaps it’s time to train the harsh light of scrutiny on the two major parties themselves, since it is this rivalry-Republican vs. Democrat-that has shaped and defined American politics and policy for the past hundred and fifty years. But do these time-worn institutions even resemble themselves, anymore? Republicans, urged ever onward by the Christian Right, carefully frame their arguments in morally derived absolutes: The Soviet Union was an “evil empire.” All drugs are “evil.” As Ted Halstead writes in his essay, Dysfunctional Duopoly, “Moralism may or may not make for good politics, but it rarely makes for good policy, because it substitutes wishful and parochial thinking for careful analysis.”
And while the party known for its dedication to smaller government and less intrusion into personal liberties continues to trumpet these ideals in the halls of power, its near term record tells a different story. From concessions to big business to runaway agricultural subsidies to overt restrictions on free trade, recent Republican administrations have allowed government spending to careen totally out of control. Champions of the free market? I don’t think so. These days the Republican ideology makes the Democrats look more libertarian than ever.
And what of their traditional opposition? Once a stated champion of the common man, the Democratic Party has become so fragmented, so divisive, and so reliant on massive and often forced coalitions among the myriad interest groups that form its base, that its leaders often seem downright schizophrenic. Unfortunately, as party leaders attempt to satisfy one special interest after another, the results have been paralyzing, and most of the recognizable ideals upon which the party was built have been lost. As Halstead writes: “In its legitimate desire to preserve the New Deal and the Great Society, the Democratic Party has become trapped in the past, routinely defending antiquated industrial-era programs that no longer serve their original ends…they are increasingly guilty of confusing ends and means.”
In addition their scattershot approach to policy, the Democrats, once the stated champion of the common man, no longer seems to think the common man can make decisions on his own, and the Obama administration shows no sign of altering this perception. Democratic proposals of recent years tend to refashion outdated agendas from the party’s heyday, and exhibit a disturbing lack of vision and ability in the face of the crises looming before America in the 21st Century. While the party continues to overtly champion certain individual rights-abortion and lifestyle choices among them-it has regressed with regard to choices in the public sphere, attempting to limit personal involvement in large social programs like Social Security and Medicare. To a certain degree, the party’s leaders seem locked in a strange kind of time warp-while our country needs bold leadership in this age of globalization and the Internet, we’re getting wishy-washy policy reflections of the 1950s, instead. Hopefully the new administration’s promise of real change will prove to be much more than campaign slogans and hollow words.
Wrath of the Nine Percenters. Or, a plasma TV in every pot…
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In a time when we’re bombarded by statistics every day, and each day the sum total of the bombardment seems ever more grim, ever more hopeless, certain items still manage to stand out from all the ambient noise. For me this week, two items fell into this category: First, that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bought more mortgages from 2005 to 2008 than in the 30+ years since each company was founded; Second, the additional $30 billion bailout of AIG coupled with a slow burn of understanding that began to coalesce for me relating to certain elements of the stimulus package just passed by Congress. Namely, the almost $8 billion in wasteful spending and pork that has been stuffed into the damned thing, as well as elements of the process attached to the overarching “rules” to bail individuals out of their mortgage nightmares. Now, I feel for the average American as much as the next guy, but I’m proud to be a card-carrying member of the “91 percenters,” or those who didn’t a) work the system to purchase far more house than they could afford; b) work the system to purchase second or even third homes (living in Las Vegas, you’d be surprised out how common this was, and even more suprised by who was doing the buying), and; c) work the system just because it was broken and eminently workable, and I had weekly if not daily invitations to “work it” by those supposedly in the know. In fact, I didn’t purchase a home at all over the past few years, primarily because I didn’t have enough saved for a downpayment for the house I wanted. Do I feel silly now? The government is certainly trying its best to make me feel that way. Had I gotten into a single home, with a non-jumbo mortgage, and had I simply allowed myself to sink deeper and deeper into the damned thing (probably by buying a new Hummer or some such thing–this IS Vegas, right?), I’d be a prime candidate for one of the various bailout scenarios orbiting the much larger set of handouts generously described as the stimulus bill. Remember: I live in las Vegas, the epicenter of plunging home prices and foreclosures. In the proposed bill, those who receive the most help are those 50% or more “underwater” in their mortgage. According to new statistics just released, one in five of all American homeowners now owe more than their house is worth. That’s more than a crisis, folks-that’s a bloody disaster.
For someone who does not currently own a home, it’s certainly a fascinating first-hand view we’re getting into the essential collapse of a keystone of the American Dream, and the battle lines are certainly being drawn on sidewalks in suburbs all over this great country. Because, you see, the 91% of the population (although this number continues to fall) who bought the home they could afford, who weren’t wooed by clever P&I scams and ARMs, are largely getting angrier and angrier as the details of these various rescue packages continue to be released, and who can blame them? It’s like watching your junkie neighbor blow all his cash on crack and then seeing his kids get need-based scholarships to private school-it just ain’t right.
And in the end, it comes down to a combination of attitudes that remain, for better or worse, uniquely American. The buzzwords should sound familiar to anyone who follows the liberal media-entitlement, avarice, untouchability, immunity, and basic, old-fashioned American arrogance. Of course this couldn’t happen here, in the good old U S of A. And now we’re faced with a possible downgrade of certain US government bonds by Moody’s; we’re being treated to the effective implosion of Dubai and a desert culture whose meteoric rise can only be compared to the smoke and mirrors that gave birth to a place like Las Vegas, a place built not on substance (read: oil) but on flash and false promise (read: real estate and finance). We’re seeing the partial and “temporary” nationalization of banks in the UK, and we’re hearing whispers of similar pending deals here-not with struggling regional institutions, but with major banks like Citigroup, whose stock price is now lower than one of the off-institution ATM fees the company charges. But remember: Ninety-one percent of those reading this are responsible people. They pay their taxes. They send their kids to public schools. My Dad taught me to be one of those guys, someone who doesn’t expect free lunches and a world without the AMT. A guy that coaches little league and plays on his local business or church softball team. Maybe it’s the fact that living in Las Vegas has accelerated some fundamental cynical physiological mutation in me, or maybe its the fact that for the past ten years, average people felt that they were playing in a social class a little above their means because their home was a long-term “investment” that represented a never-ending stream of home equity loans and emergency lines of credit. But more and more, I wonder, where have the solid ones gone? The “real” ninety-one percenters? The sense of entitlement of the average American has become not only extreme and but in many ways embarrassing when considered on the international stage.
And in the face of everything that has happened over the past year, with the meltdowns in real estate and in the financial sectors, and with many first world nations looking to us for help in shoring up their own flagging economies, there remain those among us who expect the system to save them. Just save them. Without ever thinking about the problem itself or what got us here. Without ever looking inward and asking the hard questions that should be asked. About greed. About accountability. Because, in the end, that’s what this is really all about: We all passed the buck to the next guy, and the finger pointing continues to this day. It’s time for our citizens as a whole to stand and say, “We overreached. That was a mistake.” It’s time for a little accountability. And so, in a roundabout way, we come to the ultimate point of this little diatribe. I’d like to humbly offer a modest proposal: Let the business cycle take its course. Yes, this would have dire short-term consequences both at home and abroad, but Americans have proven time and again how resilient we are. If things get far worse before they better (and they will), so be it. It’ a better alternative than rewarding those who deserve no reward. And maybe this time, the poignance and pain of the lesson will remain so indelible that it won’t be forgotten so easily by the next generation. Because that also seems to be the way of the new America-we have become a country with a very short memory.
American Twilight—Part 2
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All of America’s successes and opportunities have had their cumulative effects on world geopolitics, as well, as the current state of the global economy illustrates with such stark reality. As we enter an uncertain future, America now finds itself occupying an enviable position as the world’s dominant superpower, possessing not only the military might but also the economic power to influence and direct world affairs on an unprecedented scale. The past few decades have also instilled in the average American a growing sense of responsibility for world economic and geopolitical policy, as recent events in such far-flung places as Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Bosnia illustrate all too well. We’re no longer simply accused of being the world’s policeman—in many nations, we’ve become a poster child for diplomatic police brutality and strong armsmanship.
This sense of moral certitude and accountability, coupled with our considerable successes in recent decades, have made the powers-that-be secure in their assumption of a leadership role in the growing trend toward globalization as it gained considerable momentum throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Some would also argue that the foreign policy spawned by such attitudes has led us to our current situation of “primary target” among both foreign governments and many of the groups attempting to undermine or overthrow those governments. As critics of the former administration would be quick to point out, individual Americans traveling abroad are probably less secure today than at any other time in our nation’s history.
There’s also no question that America has been blessed in its abundance. Our ascent from colony to superpower—accomplished in only 200 years—is nothing short of meteoric by the conventional standards of world history and nation building. No country on earth possesses more abundant and diverse natural resources; we boast a broader range of energy resources than any other country in the world, among them significant mineral, timber, natural gas, and oil reserves, as well as a vast agricultural base. America also enjoys the protection of two sizable oceans—barriers that insulate our shores and our people from much of the unrest in other, less developed parts of the world, and which created a self-contained and stable environment within which our society was allowed to grow and prosper largely unhindered in the decades following the Industrial Revolution.
Unfortunately, these natural advantages have begun to erode, and the definition of a secure boundary is considerably different than it was a century ago. In an age of nuclear devices concealed in briefcases and viral agents capable of unthinkable destruction, the events of September 11, 2001 became much more than a wake-up call for America. They served notice to our people that we had entered a new era, one where safety and security were suddenly defined very differently. And as devastating as 9-11 was, it stands as merely the most obvious example that the past does not necessarily dictate the future. As technology improves and globalization continues, the inherent advantages provided by America’s extensive natural resources will begin to grow less important, and by extension, less relevant.
Thankfully, these natural advantages represent only part of the story. The choices we have made as Americans serve to balance this complex geopolitical equation, and hopefully the pendulum has begun its swing in a more proactive direction for the future. The hard-won construction of a political system that encourages ingenuity and industriousness has had more to do with our success than any of these natural advantages. Support for individual freedoms and property rights, an openness that allows individuals to pursue their dreams, to succeed and fail on their own merits, and to keep the ultimate fruits of their labor—these are the underlying principles that have made our country great, and upon which rest our ultimate hopes for future generations.
But the policies that deliver on these principles have become rather strained over the past few decades. As P.J. O’Rourke states in his insightful analysis of world economic systems, Eat the Rich, “…politicians are cheerleaders who have themselves confused with the people who carried the ball.” And perhaps this observation rests at the heart of our current situation. We’ve become so litigious, so mired in bureaucracy for its own sake, so self-serving and self-important, that our leaders are more concerned with taking credit for the work of others and deflecting blame than with actually tackling the toughest issues as they stagnate right beneath their noses. We’ve become a nation more concerned with congressional re-districting and all-powerful lobbies than with addressing many of our core social issues, not to mention the inevitable side effects of globalization, and somewhere along the line the voice of the individual citizen has been muted and distorted. As we stand on the cusp of the new millennium, the silence is deafening.
American Twilight—Part 1
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What follows is the first of a number of excerpts from several much longer works and articles I was commissioned to write over the past few years. I think they’ve become rather timely, so I’ve decided to share certain select pieces of them here:
The Close of the American Century
The 20th Century will forever loom large in the annals of history as the American Century. America’s industriousness, innovation, and spirit have allowed it to emerge victorious from two world wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War, and increasing economic pressures from the nations of the Pacific Rim. Our national conscience fueled the Civil Rights movement, guided us through the turbulent unrest surrounding the Vietnam conflict, and accorded women a more active voice in public affairs. In the process, the citizens of the United States have developed a sense of national identity and pride rarely matched on the world stage; even in the face of extreme adversity, our propensity to unite for the common good continues to represent one of our greatest strengths as a people.
America’s standard of living, as measured by the average income of its citizens, is second to none, while direct government participation in our lives remains fairly minimal compared to our allies and partners in the global community. The United States remains a leader in most core economic areas, as well. We have the highest per capita GDP of all the nations of the first world and enjoy one of the lowest unemployment rates. We are a leader in high-tech exports, R&D spending, and overall productivity in the manufacturing sectors. We spend more on education and boast more university graduates per capita than any other nation. And charitable giving and volunteerism remain at all time highs. Our country has truly fulfilled its promise as a nation where personal freedoms, and the opportunities they create, take second place to none.
The prosperity America enjoys relative to other nations certainly contributes to our sense of national pride. It’s difficult to maintain an economic or bureaucratic shell game when the laws of the free market tend to cut through such subterfuge like a laser beam. While the simple thought of financial matters drives many Americans crazy, I would argue that as insanity goes, it’s certainly the least of a host of potential social evils. Because, at the heart of the argument rests a basic truism: Free market economies work. And history has shown us, often with great pain and hardship, that over time they work much more effectively and efficiently than any feasible alternative (assuming you believe there really are any workable alternatives). Hopefully, the following discussion will provide not only additional insight into this argument, but also the basis for an ongoing dialogue as we attempt to address the grave problems facing not only the United States today, but the world in general.
Of Coffee & Community, Part II
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In my previous entry, I discussed my reaction to what I consider the guilt-fueled socially responsible back-patting that I feel has been making the rounds through corporate America these days. Perhaps it’s meant to create a diversion from the country’s real problems (which are obviously considerable), or perhaps it’s simply a function of a new reality, a result of socially responsible initiatives begun several years ago that are just now beginning to bear real fruit (and thus become reportable and palatable to the public). I don’t know. What I DO know is what I saw in that Starbucks this past Friday morning, because it was that scene that prompted this post in the first place.
The place was full. Not just morning full; full-of-laid-off-people morning full. There literally wasn’t an empty seat in the place, and in some cases people were standing or hovering over occupied tables as they talked with their friends. But the most notable thing was the prevalence of the laptops and fanned-out newspapers on almost every table. And the conversations—you couldn’t help but overhear snippets through the overall buzz, and most of what I heard seemed to fall into one of three categories:
1) Two or more friends who had been laid off discussing a) their respective job hunts, and b) the evils of the companies or persons who had deemed their services no longer necessary.
2) Quasi-interviews. These seemed to take the form of one person bragging to another about all of their accomplishments in their previous position, and fishing for responses regarding their counterpart’s current position in the same industry (e.g. Did their friend have any leads?) I overheard two specific real estate-related conversations like this.
3) Product or new business pitches. There appeared to be an inordinate number of tables devoted to laptops and printed presentations, to discussions among a gaggle of hopefuls and a few obvious “money guys.”
I was immediately reminded of the articles popping up here and there regarding Dubai of late, making the city sound like the biggest Ponzi scheme on the planet (do a Google search; you’ll see what I mean). Apparently if you want a luxury car in that particular corner of the UAE these days, you just need to head to the airport. Over 3,000 of them have been abandoned by foreigners leaving the country ahead of a possible trip to debtor’s prison. One of the shining poster children of world prosperity and consumption has been reduced to what one out-of-work foreigner called “a ghost town.” It really begs a question that we have yet to answer adequately here at home: In a place built on real estate speculation and high finance, what are the long-term consequences when both self-destruct at once?
I’ve been to the particular Starbucks I mention above (I’ll keep the location secret to protect the innocent:) probably fifty times over the past year or so, and I’ve NEVER seen anything even approaching the scene laid out before me a few mornings ago. To say that it was scary would be the understatement of the year. I wish I had had my camera with me—the place was truly a microcosm of the prevailing wisdom we’re hearing on the news every day. It was the current national desperation in miniature, made manifest by the patrons in a coffee shop in the suburbs of Las Vegas. And I wondered about similar scenes playing out in similar spots across the country. It certainly plunged me into a reverie I have yet to escape, and it made me finally give in to a deep cynicism I’ve felt for a while but until now have not expressed: We have a long, long way to go before real hope returns.
You know, once I became a game designer (back in the day), I let my somewhat over-the-top commentary and near-compulsive following of everything political fall a bit by the wayside. When you’re getting paid to write about Klingons and Hobbits every day, I think you’re forced to undergo a sort of fundamental alteration or distortion of spirit-the “real world” doesn’t seem quite as real as it once did, I suppose. The past few years have seen me reemerge as a card-carrying member of reality in a number of ways. First, my involvement in the game industry has been reduced to ownership roles in several businesses; second, my primary career path for a time consisted of over-the-top entertaining, event planning, and nightlife marketing in Las Vegas; and third, my current day job in the financial services sector has me following economic fundamentals (and, by extension, the news in general) to a degree not experienced by my meager brain since just after college. And so, during this history-making election, I’ve once again been thinking deep thoughts about what’s wrong with our country and ourselves, with our parties and our larger system. And I dug out some almost-forgotten notes I had been making and some writing I had been doing on these very issues a number of years ago. It’s interesting for me to see how timely they remain… As a former president of my alma mater, Woodrow Wilson, claimed, ‘Party means little except when the nation is using that party for a large and definite purpose.’ By this standard both the Party of the Church (an old reference to the Republicans) and the Party of the Chieftains (ditto for the Democrats) are failures. “The Republicans on the whole are handicapped by an ideology holding that it is somehow possible to pursue big-spending conservatism at home and an interventionist military program abroad while cutting taxes repeatedly. The Democrats, meanwhile, are paralyzed by the micro-agendas of numerous feuding factions. Both parties wear straightjackets of their own design.” (quote by Ted Halstead)
Unfortunately, as a nation we currently stand at something of a crossroads. We’re facing record unemployment, economic turmoil not seen since the Great Depression, and an almost non-existent level of consumer confidence. And we’ve entrusted our collective fates to a relatively inexperienced former law professor (which, BTW, I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing). As a people we need to choose the road less traveled if we are to have any hope of addressing problems long overlooked. And, if history is any indication, our political leaders will not choose that road of their own accord. In this era of an increasingly moderate populace, perhaps it is time for an even larger populist reorientation of the status quo. Even though confidence in government, business, and church remain at all-time lows, Americans themselves are becoming more informed and more sophisticated. The meteoric growth of social networking vehicles of all sorts, and the so-called Web 2.0 revolution in general, make this a unique and exciting time to be alive. Surely such cultural growth, with a nudge from the proper direction, can be redirected toward increased civic participation, as well? Doesn’t the very act of discussion create the sort of forward motion that we need? After all, we’re holding Twestivals at nightclubs in Las Vegas in support of delivering clean drinking water to those who need it. We’re poking each other with Facebook apps that supposedly save tiny portions of the Amazon rain forest. As we move boldy into the post-industrial age, we as citizens and netizens-the real shareholders of our government-need to begin to take back some of the power that rightly belongs to us. A similar awakening needs to occur in corporate America, as well. As Ted Halstead writes in his essay, “American Paradox,” “The only way to free both major parties from the minoritarian groups that now wag the dog-whether teachers’ unions or moral fundamentalists-is for Americans to re-enter the political process en masse…Like an unused muscle, collective power need only be exercised to regain its inherent strength.” A storm is brewing as we stand on the cusp of the new millennium, and we haven’t yet come close to the high-water mark. How we weather the storm, how we reinvent ourselves as a nation and people, and how we finally face many of the issues we’ve spent the last century avoiding-each of these things will determine the ultimate role that America will play in the 21st Century, both on the world stage and in the lives of its citizens.
Okay, preaching done for today. But think about it. And then do something about it. For my part, I feel like I’ve been asleep for too long, and I’ve begun to change that in my own life. I’ll keep folks posted about some of the things I’m involved in. Oh, and the Marisa Tomei thing-the explanation is coming, I promise… I just keep getting distracted.
American Twilight—Part 5
Posted by: Christian Moore | Comments (0)Unfortunately, many of the key problems facing us as we enter the 21st Century aren’t obvious to most Americans, and the results are predictable—people pay very little attention to them. The natural corollary, that politicians are paying little attention to them as well, continues to fan the increasingly significant flames of public apathy. Without appropriately educating the American public on these looming problems, our citizens have no incentive to force the politicians to clear the decks of yesterday’s issues. In short, accountability is lacking because the day-to-day smoke and mirrors of politics has gone a long way toward obscuring these future issues from the minds of our citizens. But slowly the smoke is beginning to clear and the mirrors are beginning to crack; our government will only be able to leave its head in the sand for so long. Hopefully it won’t be too late when we finally decide to emerge, finding in the process that the world has become a very different place, both for ourselves and for our children.
In the meantime, though, politicians seem content to bicker continuously, to avoid exploring obvious but politically risky solutions, and to mislead the public by speaking in political sound bites rather than telling the truth. While the Obama Administration seemed to offer a promising alternative to the status quo, as time passes its underpinnings, too, seem to be founded more and more in compromise. The snarling tiger is morphing into the purring kitten before our eyes. In a similar vein, today’s politicians also spend a great deal of time standing in the way of progress because politically powerful lobbies provide any number of creative and lucrative incentives for them to do just that. In short, we’ve entered a new era of “spin control” politics, and for the most part our politicians have become the type of officials that their handlers and supporters want them to be. They’ve determined the best way to stay in office and best way to work both sides of the fence, even if that means sacrificing our standard of living and position in the world in the process. This overarching desire among the political elite to keep their jobs and adhere to polarizing philosophies has placed our society in a terrible position to face the future. And the long-term net result could be grim indeed—as citizens, we’re left with a system of government that can’t seem to solve the problems of the 20th Century because politics gets in the way of creative, effective, and practical solutions, solutions we need to be exploring right now rather than foisting off on future generations. Assuming this statement to be a self-evident truth, how will we ever prepare ourselves to tackle the problems looming before us in the 21st?