a time to speak up, page-4

Ronsterm,

North America's fate parallels and greatly influences our own, so their point of view is probably key. In any case, it's hard to use terms which apply simultaneously to the many countries to which my concerns apply.

So many key concepts vital to peace, happiness and freedom have been forgotten or discredited in recent decades. We seem blind, or blindsided, or asleep.

Who today understands just how vital the basic principles of democracy are, and how much they have been eroded in recent decades?

Who realises the extent to which we are controlled and directed along ineffectual paths by what the media does, and does not, say?

What can we do?

I can think of a starting point, and it's this: why do we tolerate lies from our leaders? If they can make us hollow promises without penalty, what hope have we of getting worthwhile leaders or outcomes? Isn't it logical that, by tolerating dishonesty, we set ourselves up to be led by people whose best qualification is their ability to lie, dissemble, and deceive?

We pride ourselves on having shrugged off supposedly repressive, hypocritical moralities, and have become a permissive society. But have we gone too far? How can a civilisation operate without prizing basic moral principles like honesty? Surely dishonesty makes corruption, decay and destruction inevitable?

With such innate flaws, we don't need any angry bolts from heaven to destroy us. We're doing it ourselves.

Nothing will change until we, the people, demand from our leaders the sort of basic respect that we expect of people around us. How much trust or loyalty or support do we give to an acquaintance who lies to us? We give them the flick, right? And if that's how we react to someone who has no power over us, how much more so should we demand honesty from those who presume to lead us, and who, in many ways, decide our fate?

We, the people, are being disrespected, as people. We're being lied to on a casual, habitual basis. We need to call a halt to that in terms that cannot be ignored. That's where we start I think. Beyond that, I think we need to rediscover our esteem of the other democratic and moral principles necessary to keep civilisation stable, and require that our leaders live by them too.

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