Where are the leaders? Where is the hope?

I’m troubled by what’s going on in our society, both at a local and global level. There is so much poverty, conflict, anger and lack of compassion in the world right now, that it is hard to see a way through what seems like a relentless swing to extremes, where the values that once seem to be a given, i.e., empathy, compassion, care, love and even forgiveness are no longer to the fore.

Those qualities appear to have been replaced by a narrative which expresses itself as demonization, scapegoating, lies, exaggeration, ego, a lack responsibility and accountability.

The desire to dominate, divide, appeal to and nurture fear, and give succour to those who seek only to promote an agenda of protectionism, separation, segregation and hatred, seems to have gone unchecked.

It almost feels like we’re on some kind of unrelenting journey towards some kind of oblivion, whether that’s climate disaster, the continued rise of nationalism or even a third World War. Of course, that’s what it feels like and doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the case, but what is clear, is this question – where are the leaders?

I grew up in the 80s, begun raising a family in the 90s and looked forward to the 00s (and whatever this decade is known as) with optimism. The hope generated by events such as the end of apartheid, the fall of communism, the end of ‘The Troubles’ in Ireland now seem like a distant memory.

As compared with what feels like and appears to be the rise of angry, divisive, somewhat ‘uneducated,’ power-hungry middle-aged men, vying for a place or their place in the world – the US, Russia, Turkey, Hungary, Brazil, Israel, Syria, the Philippines, and North Korea among others.

This is epitomised by a sense of approach that’s either black or white, a commitment to dictate rather than lead, a desire to dismantle conventions and alliances (that have gelled nations together for decades and underpinned our humanity after the devastation of two world wars), a determination not to compromise or coalesce, a blatant disregard for the power of language, and a penchant for not only stifling discussions and debate, but label those who question or critique, as agitators, unpatriotic, (even in some cases as) terrorists and a threat to the nation or state.

The world to all intents and purposes has the appearance of chaos and disarray but history tells us that this old planet has seen much more troubled times and that relatively speaking we are living in much safer times than at any point in our past.

That of course doesn’t compensate or reassure the population when we are faced with a multitude of issues that range from those that I describe to more localised issues such as obesity, mental health and suicide, although to be fair, there’s nothing remotely local about these issues also – they are global.

All of this is perpetuated by rolling 24-hour media that was historically the preserve of the TV screen at set times. Whereas once, a common narrative was easily understood, a plethora of narratives now compete for our attention in headline-grabbing ways (the remainder of the story we barely scan never mind read), yet many are ill-informed and lack credibility. However, they feed our perception and reinforce our beliefs, and in turn, confirm only the world we know or think we know, and the world we feel as is, and thus the cycle begins again.

When I was growing up, we had leaders that provided leadership, even those emerging from their own past, that inspired those around them, Mandela and Gorbachev for example, and they followed leaders who promoted a different message, Gandhi, JFK and Martin Luther King among them. It’s hard to identify and imagine a leader in the current climate that offers leadership or nurtures hope to those of us who seem to have our place in society, or even have a voice against a lot of noise. The likes of Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Leo Varadkar are among a crop of young vibrant leaders that emerged in the last few years although domestic politics seems to have taken the gloss of them in recent times.

Questions such as where are the leaders and where is the hope that the 80s and 90s seem to nurture springs readily to mind?

The narrative that seems to have come to dominate in recent times is one where being on the left and/or being liberal is a dirty word. Those on the right would suggest that the views of ‘the left’ are held by the mainstream, although who the mainstream is any more is somewhat debatable.

However, the vast majority of the media, across the globe, is in owned by those occupying positions on the right, whether that’s private or state ownership, and as we know, any one or anybody that has control of the media tends to control the mainstream.

Why is it though that being on the left, or holding liberal views has come to be seen as, ‘dirty?’ I understand for some that conservative values is at least preferable if not a must. I myself, was once what I describe a right-wing conservative Catholic and was fully-fledged ‘member of the club,’ advocating, arguing for and promoting doctrine as if I was some kind of self-appointed enforcer of ‘the rules.’ I wanted to be good member of the club, true to the values and beliefs that I inherited but this eventually brought me into conflict with not only people, but ultimately, my (then) more liberal-minded friends, colleagues and accomplices.

I believed I was right because God existed and if I honoured him with unquestioning commitment I’d be saved and everyone else would be doomed, and in the afterlife I’d get to say ‘told you so.’ Fuck, there must have been moments when I was hard to stick and even harder to listen too. Some of my friends thought I was nuts and told me so but you know, I had God on my side!

When I was a young teenager I always looked older and so at 13 I could go into an off-licence for my friends and get their drink for them but then I got all pious and told them I wasn’t doing it anymore as it was wrong! Wow, what a dick I was!

Underneath, I wasn’t comfortable with the views I held at all. I was promoting a godly message but I mean, if the Eucharist is/was indeed the body of Christ, which I was told at school by teachers, then we were actually eating a human, right? And a two-thousand year old man at that! No wonder I nearly threw-up at my first communion! I mean how did they make the bread last so long, in such pristine condition, and stretch it to a billion followers to be served at various times on a Sunday across the planet? Really?

These were the kind of questions that irked me and eventually brought me to the realisation that it wasn’t for me. I was truly conservative in my thinking at the time and so I understand why for some, it is necessary to hold and live by conservative values generated by a belief in a Christian God, be that the Catholic God, the Protestant God, or your mother who often thought she was God!

There is however, something deeply disconcerting about God, any God, and the ideas, opinion and beliefs that many followers have, share, aspire to, live by and attempt to apply not only to their own lives, but more worryingly, to the rest of us who don’t subscribe to or share the faith. How that manifests itself in trying to tell people how they should live, how they should treat others, and how it is used to dismiss, undermine or attempt to disprove what is already clear and proven beyond doubt is as worrying as it is unsettling. All my life I have seen those that ‘hug the altar rails’ but seem devoid of empathy and compassion for others in need as soon as they step off consecrated ground.

How in this day and age when we know what we now know, when we continue to learn every day, when we have achieved so much through research, study and discovery in health, science, technology and a range of other distinctive disciplines, how we still for example, persecute minorities?

Why do we still deny to many basic human rights that were enshrined in international law after the second world war? How have we still managed to allow modern-day slavery? Why is there still debate over climate change? Why do we still go to war?

Why do we not truly reflect upon the consequences of our policy, our practice, our words, and our deeds on the lives others? How can we let so few amass such amazing wealth whilst so many go hungry or lack shelter or the most basic of services? The list of questions is endless.

Will it really take an invisible bug to cause us to pause for thought or will we need to witness a cataclysmic weather event or be on the verge of nuclear Armageddon to really jolt us into changing our ways?

Where is the leadership? Where is the hope? Where are the mechanisms of accountability? Where have our principles gone? Why have we been so fundamentally compromised that to criticise the actions of another nation is sacrificed in order to ensure the business and commercial interests of another?

I am a Youth Worker by profession. I am also a parent, and a grandparent. I have endeavoured to nurture in my own children and in those young people I have worked with and continue to work with, even informally, ideas and ideals around fairness, justice, equality, honesty, and integrity among others.

Yet how do I, and we collectively, reconcile this with the overwhelming evidence that corruption is pervasive in politics, that wealth disparity undermines social cohesion, or the delusional notion, that a person of colour is still treated equally, and that women, still continue to shoulder overwhelming levels of domestic violence or be continuously objectified sexually?

How do we continue to accept that leaders of countries can kill, main, injure and openly discriminate against those whose only ‘crime’ is that they love and share intimacy with someone of their own gender? How have we arrived at a point that those who perform their job as a journalist will be intimidated, arrested, tortured and killed even because they choose to question the dominant narrative or expose the illegal activities of a state? How have we turned ‘whistle blowers’ into demons and traitors and criminalise those actively trying to actively save the planet through disruption as terrorists?

How do I, or any other youth worker for that matter, genuinely reconcile these contradictions with my trying to positively influence young people to stand up for those values (I alluded to earlier) which will make it all worthwhile in the long run when evidently, that appears not to be the case?

It’s those at odds with the majority of us who seem to occupy seats of power and end up drowning out if not muffling the voices of reason, pragmatism and co-operation.

Where are the leaders? Where is the hope?