Power and Politics

Many of the leaders in our society are guided by unhealthy
intentions. Instead of seeking to serve the people and heal
our nation's ills, their actions and decisions are primarily

motivated by their desire for power. Many of the people
running our country are run by their addictions to approval,
sex, power and control. Unfortunately, few truly healthy
individuals want to submit themselves to the necessary
abuses inherent to our political races - the verbal abuse
both given and received, the huge amounts of money spent,
the integrity sacrificed through the concessions, lies and
manipulations offered in order to win. Our system of
electing our officials is so corrupt that there is little
possibility of attracting a person with a strong, personally
responsible, loving inner adult self. This is not to say that
none of our elected representatives are honest and caring.
Some are certainly motivated by positive intentions but,
unfortunately, they constitute a minority.

There is no training required in personal responsibility to
run for office. Our leaders are not required to heal their
dysfunctional aspects in order to become honest and
trustworthy people. The prerequisites for political positions
mostly include having enough money, enough powerful
people behind the scenes, being male, and being white.

Our political arena is designed to attract wounded people who
need approval and power in order to feel worthy and validated.
Obviously, such a person, with little or no internally derived
sense of self-worth and integrity, is very susceptible to
corruption. As the adage says: "Power corrupts and absolute
power corrupts absolutely." Power corrupts when a person
is motivated by his or her desire for power over others, and
few people have accomplished enough inner healing to
transcend the desire for control over others.

A healthy person in office who is more concerned with serving
the people than with getting re-elected could accomplish a
great deal. Such a person was depicted in the movie Dave.
In this film the actual president is in a coma and the White
House officials, seeking to conceal the truth from the public
so they can maintain control, put a look-alike into the
president's seat. Dave, however, is a man of heart, and rather
than allowing himself to be controlled he sets about making
necessary changes - cutting money where it is not needed
and allocating it into more crucial avenues, like child care
and the creation of jobs. He even takes responsibility for the
corruption of the actual president and gracefully "dies" as
the actual president is dying so the vice-president, a man
of great integrity who was maligned by the power structure,
could take over in his rightful place. The movie is, of course,
a fantasy. Sadly, we would never elect a man of such
integrity - a straightforward, honest, caring, and financially
middle-class man like Dave. Our election process does
not allow for this.

Revamping our election process would give people like Dave an
opportunity to run for office. We desperately need people who
care more for the common good than for their own popularity.
We need brilliant, creative, honest and caring people to lead
our country, but this will never happen with our present election
system. We have incredible talent in this great country of ours,
talent that could eliminate hunger and homelessness, and heal
the internal wounds that create health problems, drug abuse,
racism, violence and crime. But this talent is rarely tapped
because running our country has been based on the earthly
values of greed and power over others rather than the spiritual
values of honesty, compassion and caring.

Unfortunately, neither our government nor most big businesses
are based on the spiritual principles of compassion and caring
about the common good. I have no doubt that if our government
was based on spiritual principles we would not have the hunger,
homelessness, crime, health problems, and drug abuse that are
endemic to our modern society.

Article written by Margaret Paul, Ph.D.