What Do We Do When Our Leaders Aren't Leaders?

And how do we turn things around so we can trust the people at the helm?

Enabling genocide. Lying about it. Supporting war crimes in other countries. Enabling ever worsening standards of living at home.

These are not things actual leaders do.

Actual leaders care about the well-being of their citizens, and of people whose lives they affect in other countries. They don’t secretly orchestrate coups, assassinations and other atrocities. They behave responsibly, and do what they can to improve living conditions.

Hello. Anybody home? This doesn’t sound like the leaders of western nations. They’re telling us that genocide is okay, that objecting to it is a form of anti-semitism, they’re sending money and weapons to Israel while saying things like it doesn’t look to them as though Israel is committing war crimes, or that the United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolution is non-binding when it actually is.

Let’s face it: they want continued global hegemony, and are willing to break all the rules in their last ditch attempts to achieve this. The more they contort themselves into ever more lies and destructive actions, the less anyone believes them, let alone respects them.

A person has to practically be a detective to know what’s really going on, since the mainstream media parrots these lies.

This is not leadership.

I saw this clip on twitter and, although it’s about Britain, it sounds eerily familiar to me, and I’m sure it does to people in other western countries.

We as citizens are not being treated as respected members of our nations, but as people to be duped so that we’ll vote the right way in the next election. Lies have become common place, wealth keeps being concentrated into the hands of the billionaire class while the rest of us struggle, and we’re supposed to consider this democracy.

And, in case you doubt that Israel has been committing war crimes in Gaza and is, in fact, committing a genocide, please see what the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories has to say:

To me it seems like a bunch of spoiled brats are running the show, or trying to any way they can.

While we do all we can to stop the slaughter in Gaza, western powers are lying to us while lining their pockets with money from AIPAC.

So what do we do? How do we as caring human beings stand up together and let our leaders know that their behaviour — their killing and destruction, their lying and posturing — aren’t cutting it? How do we get actual caring human beings who will do the right things to positions of power?

How do we change the structures of our neoliberal system to enable that? We’re part of a death machine, and we need to pull the plug and replace it with a system that supports life, and helps us all to flourish.

Sometimes I think we just need to keep doing what we’re doing, but even more so, and help our friends with what they’re doing. Supporting each other in our rallies, actions, boycott campaigns, and other creative forms of activism until our actions are fully invigorated.

Maybe, like termites, we’ll take the institutions down from the inside out, while building up groups we can support, like co-ops and credit unions, free stores and community gardens.

Maybe we’ll share information and all become better informed and more savvy to the way we’re being lied to, and learn how to spot them, and stop them in their tracks.

Maybe we’ll find courageous candidates who will do the right thing, and support them even when the media does its best to crucify them, as is predictable in this milieu of wealth controlling all.

Maybe we’ll figure out how to apply strategies for dealing with classroom bullies to the international bullies who are causing all this destruction. We’re all being held hostage to the fear of nuclear annihilation, and helplessness at the continued devastation Israel inflicts on people in Gaza, with the support of our world leaders. We’re made to feel like criminals and anti-semites, when all we want is a liveable future, and an end to the senseless killing we’re witnessing. And we’re supposed to ignore the environmental tipping points we’re veering towards that all this destruction exacerbates.

Maybe we’ll start buying products that support the rest of us instead of the brands that line the pockets of the already rich. Maybe we’ll buy local, grow food, make our own personal care products, and support the sharing economy and right to repair movement. Maybe we should boycott all chains whenever possible.

Maybe by doing all that we’ll develop the confidence and power to disallow arms production and sales, and to find ways to stop the senseless killing and destruction that have become the hallmark of these times.

And maybe if we keep ourselves focused, we’ll intuitively find ways forward that leave our current soulless, exploitive and destructive society behind, and replace it with one where we all contribute our best and are truly cared for.