As a global society, we cannot move to Cooperation and Compassion if we keep buying into the politics of hate, fear and division every election cycle.  Unfortunately, as it stands today (Sep16, 2008), the right wing in the USA and Canada (the traditional hate-and-fear / Us vs Them parties) are doing very well in the polls for the upcoming elections.  McCain, in spite of his age, his bumbling and his links to Bush’s disastrous military and economic policies, is neck-and-neck with the historically unique Obama.  He is so desperate to be president, he is using Bush’s dirty tricks machine (led by Karl Rove) – the same people who destroyed him when he ran against Bush for the presidential nomination.  In Canada, Stephen Harper, has also (lap dog like) adopted Bush’s alienating global policies as well as his bullying tactics and controlled “talking points”. Harper has aggressively pulled Canada to the Right, even though he has only a minority of votes.  Apparently, many Canadians see his bullying and manipulation as “leadership” and “strength” as Harper is ahead of the Liberals by a whopping 16%, approaching majority government status. I have no doubt McCain and Harper have strong views but are they the right views?  Where is policy and discussion in all of this? What are the implications of more extreme right wing policies in North America for the next 4 years?

            Recently in Toronto, Gary Sachs, economist, UN special adviser and celebrity author (endorsed by Bono, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon etc) of The End of Poverty, expressed similar concerns: “The Bush and Harper administrations have let down the rest of the world in thinking through a longer-term strategy for helping the poor…Canada and the United States have gone on a military approach to the world’s problems… If you bomb villages from the air, rather than helping them grow food and build roads on the ground, you don’t win these battles….These issues of poverty, climate change, global instability.. are issues of our planet, and they are issues that should be in front of us in our election campaigns, but they are not… I am worried about our capacity to kill each other faster than we can understand each other”.

Sachs’ analysis is very insightful and he correctly points out that the real issues are not being discussed.  I have written at length on these subjects in “Ageless Wisdom Spirituality” and in various articles (see The Articles section of my website, especially my review of Homer Dixon’s The Upside of Down), but here is a brief summary of possible reasons why the political process is stuck:

1. Our consumer society and political process are geared towards the short term.  Working for longer term solutions (environment, energy, poverty etc) may mean saving rather not spending now, which has become compulsive for many.
2. We don’t like change and the changes which are necessary to meet our global challenges are so fundamental that most politicians are afraid to be honest because they will lose votes to someone else promising a quick (illusionary) fix.
3. Society is now so complex that most voters (and probably most politicians) don’t really understand what’s going on.  What we do know about the present Free Market however, is that through all the ups and downs, the gap between the rich and poor is increasing and fewer people are controlling more resources!  We also know it depends on ever greater consumption (in an era of scarce resources) and because it is now a global system, is becoming more volatile – the failure of any substantial link in the chain, can bring down the whole system.
4. The Free Market only counts monetary costs.  Other costs like the effects of pollution, global warming etc on infrastructure and health are borne by individuals like you and me – either directly through our own pocket or indirectly through taxes.  So when the governments says it can give you a few dollars back in tax cuts because it is trimming services, think about how much extra those services will cost in the long term.
5. The Free Market encourages individual action, not cooperation for the good of society at large.  Unfortunately, many of the problems that face us, for example water or energy shortages, cannot be tackled individually.
6. Lastly, in fighting an “enemy”, whether internal or external, the most aggressive action isn’t always the most suitable and can actually make a situation worse.  A prime example: Immediately after 9/11, the whole world including the Muslim countries supported the US and there was a real opportunity to move towards global cooperation on many fronts, not only terrorism.  Instead Bush childishly wanted revenge and to “bring it on”.  There were no terrorists in Iraq before the invasion (because Saddam was a dictator, like Bush’s ally, The Saudis) and now there are thousands with the opportunity to kill Americans in their own backyards.  Canada is facing a similar situation in Afghanistan.   In the meanwhile, Bush doesn’t care that millions are illegally crossing the US’s southern border. Are we all safer now?  Will be ever be?