I see something in common between the three disasters of the last decade. I'm speaking of the dot-com bubble, the Iraq War and the current mortgage crisis. What they all share is an execution of incredible hubris combined with a massive dose of naiveté. Youthful arrogance at its absolute most destructive.
Apparently, the people that have been running all these operations thought that they knew better than the combined wisdom of the previous generations of leaders:
The dot-com bubble: Profit? Who needs to show how to make a profit? That will solve itself later. For now, let's put that investment towards yoga classes.
The Iraq War: Of course the citizens of the country we bombed and invaded will welcome us with open arms. We can even disband the army, there's nothing to worry about there. And heck, so what if they have no history of liberal institutions, I'm quite sure they they will quickly embrace democracy, civil liberties and a free market.
The mortgage crisis: No down-payment? No proof of income? No problem! In fact, we feel so secure in these loans that we'll leverage our entire company against them.
What's next?
I'll say it right here- the next disaster will come from Global Warming. But not, as folks might assume, a disaster brought from the warming of the globe. No, this disaster, I fear, is the one that the people who are attempting to stop global warming will bring. These are the people in a current ideological hysteria. And it's ideological hysteria that I fear most; whether it be liberal or so-called conservative.
And contrary to popular opinion, what we're suffering from over the last ten years, or even the last thirty years, is not conservative control of government. It's, actually, a lack of conservative thinking in our society that's the problem. The right-wing ideologues that have been starting wars and ruining the economy are not conservatives. True conservatism, at its absolute core, means- listen to your elders.
We sure as hell have stopped listening to our elders.
What we need, right now, from Barack Obama is not a revolution but a return to true conservatism, a return to listening to the wisdom of our ancestors. I believe he knows that. Even though he speaks often about change, he comes across as a cautious, deliberate individual. He'll bring change in the form of a return to a more traditional way of doing business.
