Sometimes life seems pretty pointless when you look at the news. It is not surprising, because real leadership is about looking ahead, and that is exactly what we miss everywhere – not only in politics, but also outside. Take aging, for example: we knew thirty years ago that it was coming. Yet it hardly seems to have been anticipated, neither by politicians nor by other sectors. No, we just let it happen, and now we are stuck with the chaos called politics.
Look at the housing shortage. Or look at the privatization of healthcare – a process that people even dryly call “unburdening”. It sounds nice, but in reality our leadership has become a joke.
Meanwhile, politics seems to be taken over by people who primarily serve their own interests, often on the backs of others. Their motives seem miles away from the common good. The other day I heard between the lines about (the risks of) ‘freedom of speech‘. That sounds noble, but in an age where the Internet remembers everything, it can just work against you. Like an elephant who never forgets anything.
Personally, in my blogs, I consciously try to stay away from politics, religion and money – those big topics that so often divide us. I prefer to think about the bearability of existence, about how to keep it livable for all of us. We do our best, try to be understanding and accommodate each other with a bit of civility. But honestly, sometimes I also feel powerless. No matter how hard you try, that bearability sometimes seems elusive.
And then I wonder: what would the animal kingdom think about this? After all, ‘survival of the fittest‘ also applies there. It just depends on who or what you meet – in the right place, at the right time. It’s not just what you do, but how alert and attentive you stay, even when life challenges you. Because that portability we so strive for remains something fragile, something that requires constant attention and commitment….
