The Leaderless West - a land of opportunity

[Taxloss]

We live in a remarkable period, unparalleled in modern times. Its extraordinary nature is difficult to overstate, but few recognise its potential.

The West has no leaders.

The West is, let's remind ourselves, not only our home but our civilisation. It is larger and far greater than our country (whatever our country is). It has been the dominant civilisation on this little planet for more than 400 years. Its name is utterly meaningless, as a sphere can have no "West", but it is better than any other - certainly better than the term "Free World", which combines irrelevancy with error, complacency and patronisation. The West is, crudely, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Western and Central Europe. It is - used to be - a loose global alliance of nations. A better definition is "Journalistic shorthand".

Previously, the West relied on leaders. One of its few common defining characteristics was that it shared a background in personal, European-style, monarchy, and that lived on in its political culture. As ruler of the richest and most powerful country on the Earth (and in the West), the American President naturally assumed the title of "leader of the free world". That title now resembles the old post of "Holy Roman Emperor" - as the Emperor was neither holy, nor Roman, nor in charge of an empire, the President as "leader of the free world" does not lead, and we are not free.

Instead, the United States has become a global slum landlord for a globe that is increasingly becoming a slum. (The average human, incidentally, lives in a slum - other than climate change, this is the single biggest impact of Western economics on the planet.)

But the leadership crisis goes deeper than that. President Bush's administration is not so much stalled as stagnating, and thanks to the 22nd amendment he will not only not be in power in 2009, he is not in power now - he is merely in office.

But leadership of the West has always been carried by more than one pair of shoulders - it used to be a club occupied by the most extraordinary political animals of our generation, big beasts like Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Helmut Kohl, Francois Mitterand. Say what you like about their politics, these people were leaders.

Now, we have Blair - a fatally wounded UK prime minister who has been floating face down in the political water all year. He's had so many close shaves he has cut his own throat.

The leaders of France and Germany will be out within the next couple of years. Berlusconi's travails have returned Italy to its usual state of political deadlock. Elsewhere on the European stage, only Spain's prime minister Aznar is securely in place for a major country; beyond him, you're looking at Vladimir Putin, certainly not a "Westerner". Australia's John Howard squandered what brief moment in the global limelight he had and is now invisible.

In other words, our civilisation is at a threshold; this is a genuine watershed moment. And this is where the opportunity comes in. Another generation of leaders is waiting to happen, and some of them might not even now they're part of that. Everywhere, the Right is tired and discredited; as stated, the most vibrant PM in Europe is Spain's leftist Aznar. The grind of rightist and neoliberal market economics has got to us. A fresh, and perhaps even radical, voice from outside the tired triangulations of our present political matrices could, and I believe will, sweep the board.

Position vacant: Leader of the West. Leader of the NEW FREE WORLD.

[Taxloss]

1. Wow, that dropped off the front page in two minutes.

I have never kicked a post of my own before, but frankly I spent time on this and crafted it for you chaps so I think it deserves a chance. If it drops like a stone I'll repost in Editorials or the UK forum.

[htuttle]

2. one correction

"only Spain's prime minister Aznar is securely in place for a major country;"

Ironically enough, the people of Spain tossed Aznar out on his ass last year.

on edit:

I think you were thinking of Zapatero, the new PM.

[Taxloss]

5. Shit, I meant Zapatero

I was thinking of Aznar, though. Other than the name, I think the piece said "Zapatero" quite clearly - I clearly meant him.

[Maestro]

3. Completely agree.

If * is considered a leader, we are indeed in trouble. This is a classic example of why right wing extremism is so dangerous. It is very egotistical. Instead of having any true alturistic desire to improve the world, it is nothing more than chest-thumping. They usurped Christianity just like Osama bin Forgotten usurped Islam. Pathetic!

[welshTerrier2]

4. very interesting, Taxloss !!

it's sad that reflective posts like this don't often get much response on DU ... fwiw, i found the ideas you talked about very interesting ...

as i got to the bottom of your post, two thoughts hit me ...

the first was implicit in what you were writing about: i thought it was kind of inspirational that we had a real opportunity here to empower a new leader committed to the values many of us share ... it's an opportunity that could not only lift up "the West" but the entire globe as well ...

but the second was that perhaps the leader of the NEW FREE WORLD will not be a westerner at all ... perhaps we are entering an era where the West is in decline and a new power, anchored so powerfully by an awakening China, will emerge to dominate life on the planet ... we in the West have a long, tragic history of imperialism ... we are selfish exploiters who have been very poor stewards of a fragile planet badly in need of international cooperation ... many Western countries are themselves badly fragmented by class distinctions ... even in the supposed role model, the US, we see the never-ending obscenity of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poor and the disappearance of the middle class ...

perhaps a new leader in the West will rise to the top on the strength of a new vision that allows centuries of bad history to be set in a new direction ... without question, many of us would welcome such a visionary leader ... but it seems like an awful lot to ask of a single person fighting against such a long and broad tide ...

you're right to point out that the job is vacant; it's just not clear even a great candidate can accomplish the mission ...

[Taxloss]

7. It's possible that the new leader might come from an unorthodox

background - for instance, I have been much impressed by the strides made by the Left in South America. Something I should have stressed in the piece was that if we progressives neglect this opportunity, it will be taken by fascists and grafters; in the case of Italy and the USA this may already have happened; we cannot allow that.

[beam me up scottie]

6. We Americans on the left crucify anyone who

has human faults while the reichwing spends billions of dollars creating a man behind the curtain who is then worshiped by the sheep who believe he can do no wrong.

[Taxloss]

8. This is the great deception of modern times.

That elections are won on image and personality and public relations. It's a message spread by three groups of people:

1: Professional politicians who won on image and personality and PR.

2: The Lazy Media.

3: People who work in PR.


Here's the truth: elections can be won on image and personality and PR. but those are useless against ideas. If you're running on ideas, passion, ideology, and so on, you'll win every time. The time is ripe for people with vision and charisma, not focus-group-tuned clones whose concept of politics is edging doctrinally closer to their opponent.

[beam me up scottie]

9. You're much more optimistic than I.

I think most people in this country will vote for the candidate that will look after their own interests.
The average Joe could care less about equality or ideology.
Tell them you'll put more money in their wallets and keep them safe from the boogieman and they'll buy it hook, line and sinker every time.

[Taxloss]

10. Blaenau Gwent, Kidderminster, Martin Bell, Ken Livingstone ...

... all unexpected wins on ideas within the past 10 years.

[beam me up scottie]

11. Excellent point.

But here, we started all over again on 911.
We now gladly accept he Patriot Act, violating the Geneva Conventions, racial profiling, Homeland Security, the DSM, I could go on and on but then I would have to throw myself off a bridge at lunchtime.

[Taxloss]

12. I forget who it was

but a few months ago a UK columnist in either the Guardian or the Observer - I think the latter - said that it would be entirely easy to win a general election as a new party. Call yourself the "Public transport party", and run solely on the basis of doubling the national spend on public transport, if not more.

You. Will. Win.

Ideas work. Image and spin simply take centre stage in their absence. Blair won not only because he wasn't John Major, but because he had ideas. "We will win not despite our our beliefs, but because of them", he said in '95 (the good old days.

[beam me up scottie]

13. If I was lucky enough to live in the UK,

I would have hope.
This country destroyed public transportation intentionally to assure the continuing profits of the big three.
We refuse to subsidize rail travel while doling out billions in hand outs to airlines.
We give huge tax breaks for purchasing SUVs while scrapping years of research on electricity powered cars.

The Texas mentality has take over.
ARGH

[beam me up scottie]

14. kick

nt