Living Up to My Potential

Sometimes I wonder to myself why, as a strong, independent, and intelligent young woman, I am not grooming myself to make a difference in the world. What I mean by that is taking power and using it. I truly and honestly believe that I could, if I so chose, someday be a member of Congress. Or Senate. I am smart. Despite my ADD, I am determined. And, if I someday found myself in the greatest position of power, with the Presidency of the United States, I do believe that I would act upon what is right. The system would not corrupt me. Perhaps I am a self-absorbed narcissist but I believe that I could possibly someday be the type of leader that the U.S. Government, as structured, ideally ought to have. Yet, despite the possibility of what I imagine to be a long successful career in public service, I am instead choosing the life of an academic (at the very mature age of 18).

I am at odds, fundamentally, with the system of government currently present in the United States. The reason we find corruption rampant in our government is because the system is flawed to its very core. The most powerful position in our government, if occupied by an ideal leader who knows right from wrong and acts upon it , would still be unable to work with and around those morally bankrupt and/or morons that occupy seats in Congress and the Senate. And then Plato said, "I told you so!" Insert argument for the Philosopher King here.

I'm not making an argument for or against the Philosopher King, nor am I making an argument for or against democratic republics. I am explaining, more to remind myself than to inform anyone else, why I'm choosing to be a stuffy academic/professor/philosopher/hobo rather than "live up to my potential" and be a powerful leader in the world. It's quite simple, actually.

I don't think that the United States is fixable. I think that the country is a lost cause. The American Empire, and yes, it is an empire, is in decline. Historians can show various parallels, for example, between the decline of the Roman Empire, and what is going on with the United States today. I think the argument is there, I think it is a strong one, and I accept it. The "greatest country on earth", Canada the United States of America, is going to fall. It's not going to be one moment. Like the Roman Empire, it is a steady decline, rotting from the outside in and from the inside out. From the top down and from the bottom up. Even if someone who knew how to save the States was elected President, I don't think it would make a difference. Because ultimately, the system is flawed, and has bred corruption. It will fall. Perhaps what historians may one day point to as the official end of the United States will happen in my lifetime. But I think not. It will happen long after I'm gone. And when that time comes, my potential policies, my possible attempt to save this country from its self-inflicted demise, will not have made a permanent mark. A real mark. Yes, I would be helping people. But there's a better way.

If, and this is a big if, in my academic career I can create and capture the elusive "right" system of government, the proper structuring of a system that deals with the application of morality in the political sphere, then I have done more than anyone could dream. This is my goal. Because when the United States falls, I want the people, the leaders who pick up the pieces, to put this system, if it exists, into practice. The chance of me actually writing something or thinking something truly worthwhile is miniscule. The chance of some people in the distant future reading my work, understanding it, agreeing with it, and implementing it properly is even less. But it is more than the lost cause that is saving the country of my birth.

Special thanks to the woman who inspired this post: Meryl Streep as horrible conservative, The Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher

-Viv

Margaret Thatcher: Defeat?  I do not recognise the meaning of the word.