Thanks for your nice note, Paule. I have to beg off again (it must have been Tuesday the last time we exchanged notes). I'm rushing now to catch up and want to give your message greater thought.
I believe you are trying to find a way to improve the conditions we see around us, just as I am. I suspect you also realize it's not a trivial undertaking. It will not be completed during my lifetime and, quite probably, not during yours, but we must start to lay a foundation or it will never happen.
re: "We must remember though that all throughout history the most evil and vile atrocities have been committed by the very people we had looked to for leadership."
I agree. I gained an understanding of this point, quite by accident, while writing a letter to a friend. My friend lives in a foreign country and was reared in a culture very different from ours. She and I had been discussing "goodness", a topic I'd always felt strongly about but had never examined in depth.
In response to a comment of hers, I tried to describe why I believed humans are, by nature, good. Not only did I fail to establish the point, I wound up proving (to my own satisfaction, at least) exactly what you said ... that we can not trust our leaders.
I posted an extract of that letter, some time ago, at #msg-5967902
For our discussion, the important part of the letter comes after the parenthetical expression "(The following was written at a later time)". I debated the wisdom of linking the entire letter because the first part may conflict with your religious beliefs. After considering the matter, I decided your post showed your open-mindedness and felt it was better to point to the full letter, so the background for the concept would be clear.
re: I think leadership is the place to start.
I agree, and I've been trying to find others willing to consider the problem from that point of view. In my view, those we select to represent us in our government become our leaders. I believe our leaders are flawed because the way we select them is flawed. (I would like to comment on the reasons our political system is flawed, but I don't want to turn this post into a book.) If we are to improve our government and our society, the first step must be to improve the quality of our leaders.
Before we can do that, we must devise a method of selecting representatives which eliminates deceit and obfuscation and rewards probity. It is not easy, but it can be done.
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