Can the Government Shutdown actually give us hope for the future?
“Lack of clarity is always a sign of dishonesty.” – Celia Green
Regardless of your political persuasion and/or view of the current federal government shutdown, you’ve got enough ‘debate ammunition’ to sound-off for hours on end. And paradoxically, everyone seems to have at least some points of merit.
But something other than the core debate struck me yesterday, and I’d like to share.
On this topic, like so many lately, I’ve seen archived video footage (and written transcripts) of politicians previously voicing their opinions and views, those which seem to be in direct opposition, and in fact contradiction with the views and opinions they are espousing today.
For examples, just Google ‘government shutdown 2013’, or ‘government shutdown 1995’.
Some may call this hypocrisy. I, am one of those “some”.
For while I am certainly an advocate for personal evolution, and I realize that human beings change over time…the evidence seems to suggest that these politicians are simply changing their point of view based on the political need of the day. I know, crazy right?
But just when my stomach started to turn, lamenting about the corrupted lunacy that seems to symbolize our ‘representative democracy’…I had a calming thought:
- Never before in history, have we possessed such means of recording and memorializing the thoughts, words and actions of our “elected leaders”.
- Never before have we had such readily available technology to provide actual transparency to the American people.
- Never before have politicians needed to know, and in most cases fear, that their every word is being preserved…and that it may be scrutinized in the days to come.
Now, it doesn’t seem that this recorded evidence is yet influencing the masses…at least to the degree that it should.
But I suspect that if there’s any light at the end of the tunnel, if there’s any hope of eliminating flip-flop hypocrisy from the fabric of politics, if there’s any hope of bringing forth a generation of genuine leaders who aren’t afraid to live with transparency over their governing decisions…this may be it.
“Transparency may be the most disruptive and far-reaching innovation to come out of social media.” – Paul Gillin
