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.