Make America rate again
Nobody envies Joe Biden his next four years. Cleaning out the Augean stables would have been an easy task but for the mythical king of Elis. Myth lives longer today than you could believe possible given all the laws, codes, watchdogs and other appurtenances supposed to be overseeing our safety. Myth, you see, is in our minds. You know that and I know that but look around and see the frankly terrifying ‘myth believing’ going on. History may be accused sometimes of perpetuating myth but good history also sends it scurrying away. I hope every American has begun to realise its big mythtake (my spelling).
Personally I would advise President Biden to swap the Make America Great Again slogan to my headline subject for this short piece. The America I am proud to be called ‘half’ of, because of my American mother, has run into a brick wall of influence, a fear for the American way of life and idolatry of something far worse than money – greed. When politicians in the richest country in the world deny the spirit of Democracy in such a self-serving way there is something very wrong indeed. Wrong with the politics, wrong with the thinking of such servants of the people and wrong with the unbridled corruption in politics from top to bottom.
There is a shift in attitude to politicians everywhere. There is a big shift towards corruption everywhere. If it makes a society swing profitably, why not? Because the basic human right has nothing to do with freedom, food, or any other F. The basic rule of human right is to be told the truth. Smart-ass sellers of anything are corrupt if they neglect this basic tenet of a society. Are you recording all the conversations with people you trust? Of course not. I’m getting precious close to it myself, recording all business matters and filing them on the cloud. I don’t record a chat over a drink and I never record without saying so first.
How has doing so affected the business we run? It makes it much more efficient and encourages us to think before we speak. But it does something more fundamental than even that. In a very tiny, maybe even trivial, way, it immortalises our words. That can be for good or for ill. Very senior people are learning that everything they say, to anyone, at any time, is immortalized by the media, social and otherwise. For better, for worse. The effort and discipline of all this work is an attempt to bring us back to being able to believe what we are told from authoritative and reliable voices.
This is where the real resurrection of the United States will come from. Freedom and democracy demand transparency and trust to work at all. If you lack those an authoritarian state will certainly be more efficient – but infinitely less happy. The price of happiness is trust given and taken. What I am talking about sounds like a fundamental virtue. It may be that but that is not what I am selling. Trust is a basic commercial tool. It allows business to flow – something that has been the biggest headache for the Brexit group in the UK. Business to and from the European Continent doesn’t flow any more. I’m not surprised.
So, Mr President (how comforting to use that title – and mean it) please stick to your high example settings. They have begun to make us all think, not so much about being great as about our being rated as worthwhile allies, trustworthy traders and honest partners.
Our one hundred years on the planet is still a very short time to make the impact we would like.
It is time enough for us to become rated again.