Musing

today’s Musing written and published from south Calgary, near Fish Creek Park

6C/43F (high 10C), a short walk under moonless inky dark; background sound-masking on a large scale , early traffic hums softly in the distance

thinking strategically – on a large scale – is the game of politics; it seems too often to be more about ‘right or left’ than it is about ‘right or wrong’; in most levels of government or large organizations of any kind, the game seems to be more about power, manipulation of issues, and what those behind the scenes really want rather than altruistic service of citizens, of community, of stakeholders

in Canada we are seeing a high-level game of chicken playing out; we understand it because we have seen the muck being stirred so much we tend to feel part of it; our American cousins would find it surreal – but then we find the reality-show view of their primary and presidential politics equally bemusing

from where I sit, it is in peril; we see leaders and handlers of leaders making decisions based on how we polled on some survey taken during the dinner hour whereby those who did not hang up on the pollster gave hasty answers to the caller’s skewed questions, the results of which appear on page one as de-facto facts - what is fact, what is opinion and how can we tell them apart?

evidence is apathy, low voter turnout, self-serving politicians and parties who too often have forgotten they are elected to serve their electorate rather than the other way ‘round; I hope democracy in its pure sense is something we might get back to one day (imagine if we all voted on every issue electronically!)

I often read op-ed pieces about the leadership void, public interest apathy and malaise, as if no one is interested; we live in the smartest of times, we have the greatest amount of knowledge at our fingertips with keystroke access to just about anything that has ever been known but collectively we are too comfortable, too unengaged – we don’t feel our way of life, our freedom or our prosperity are in jeopardy – we sit on the sidelines as spectators in a reality show, passing the popcorn and passing the buck

we rely, too heavily on media and watchdog organizations to be vigilant on our behalf, too much on wise guys in convention hallways to run our organizations, our NGOs, our governments – too easily we sit on our hands, sit on our mouths and watch as people we don’t know, people who would not listen to us if we spoke up, making choices about what is to be done, the consequences of which creates generational change we are powerless as individuals to right

I think the lack of leadership is less of an issue than the issue of followership, the issue of engagement of youth (I mean anyone under 40); life in our society or our organizations, our clubs and our neighborhoods is not driven by law or public opinion – it is driven by policy – public policy – and our engagement in the policy making process is where we all need to invest a few brain cells

Mark Kolke
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