Letter to The Times

Mikhail Gorbachev’s December 9th op-ed column in The New York Times, “We Have a Real Emergency”, addresses the need for substantial change soon with respect to climate change. One line of his column is “The main burden of responsibility, however, lies with governments and their institutions.” When I read this a radical thought occurred to me, one that has been gestating for several weeks. Has our leadership become so dysfunctional that it should be de-legitimatized, made obsolete by acclamation? Trying to get our leaders to do anything constructive is a growing frustration for people all over the world, in many cases they (or the system they represent) are a big part of the problem in themselves. This prompted me to write the following letter to the editors of The Times:

    Dear editors:

    In reading Gorbachev’s op-ed today it occurred to me for the first time on this scale that ‘we the people’     need to stop waiting on our leaders to get going and take responsibility for all our crises. Why? Because     they are incapable of doing it. They are proving day after day they have reached such a level of                 dysfunction that polarized ideologies, gridlocked legislation, and such a complex myriad of conflicts of     interests prevent any meaningful progress on any of our incredibly critical problems.

    We are in a crisis of consciousness as a species. ‘We the people’ need to take charge and quit hoping     our leaders see the light and take the kind of action necessary.

    I am a huge admirer of Gorbachev so this commentary isn’t a negative reflection of him. But his words         echoed what we usually hear, that we need to make our leaders accountable, and it occurred to me that     the assumption that our leaders need to do this is outmoded. As former U.S. ambassador to NATO         Harlan Cleveland, wrote in his book Nobody in Charge, "Those with visible responsibility for leadership         are nearly always too visible to take responsibility for change."

    Thanks,

    John Renesch
    futurist, author, Getting to the Better Future