October 6, 2005 Issue

"Give me the making of the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws." Andrew Fletcher (1703)

We find ourselves in complicated times. This is a world in which our best source of inspiration and leadership comes not from our government, but from our songwriters and musicians.

In Martin Scorsese’s recent documentary of Bob Dylan called No Direction Home, Dylan cites Woody Guthrie, the composer of This Land is Your Land, as someone from whom "you can learn how to live." The same can be said of Dylan. But it can't be said of President Bush. No one in his or her right mind would allow him such influence.

People have always looked to religious leaders for direction. These days we have such luminaries as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell to show us the way. There are drug dealers who have higher morals than these boobs. And they run far more efficient operations than Bush does.

It is said that times like these demand people be more religious. We have religion coming out of our ass. Most successful heads of churches with which I am familiar, more closely resemble CEOs of corrupt corporations than they do foot soldiers for God. And the Catholics have their own unique set of problems.

Our prominent religious leaders, in conjunction with their right wing brethren, have taken us a long way in the last few years. They have led us all the way back to the Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tenn. in 1925. Who could have known that 80 years after that carnival we would need Clarence Darrow...again?

What we need is more spirituality.One man who exhibits spiritual leadership rather than religious dogma is the Dalai Lama. Last week he very simply pointed out: "War is outdated."

He has written extensively about spirituality. "When I say 'spiritual' I do not necessarily mean any kind of religious faith. When I use the word spiritual I mean basic human good qualities. These are: human affection, a sense of involvement, honesty, discipline and human intelligence properly guided by good motivation."

In 1969 I heard Ralph Abernathy deliver a sermon at a Baptist church in New Orleans. This was shortly after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He described driving through the state of Mississippi with Dr. King several years earlier.He told of stopping at a rural gas station. The hostile attendant, noticing the Georgia license tags on their car, menacingly told him: "Boy, you're a long way from home to be lost."

Abernathy replied: "Mister, we ain't lost, we just don't know the name of this little village. "He knew that if he sped up for the hills, slowed down for the curves, and kept his eye on the road they would eventually get back to Georgia. They had a map, and they both knew, as did their followers that, "They weren't lost, they just didn't know the name of that little village."

Well, today we are lost.And until we develop a universal vision of peace, understanding, and compassion we will remain a dangerous, blundering society with no direction home.

The unique brand of patriotism practiced in this country, buttressed by bumper stickers and American flags, has never been more worthless since after 9-11. Ostentatious patriotism is not what this country needs. We need to develop an allegiance to international good will and we need to understand it has never been more important that we become connected to this world and everyone in it.

There is a dearth of leadership among business leaders today. As the brilliant graduates of the Wharton School of Economics and the proud possessors of MBAs from Harvard lead many of our prominent publiccorporations to ruin, and as they ready themselves for prison time, where are our leaders of industry and commerce?

One such leader is Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, and a true visionary in a muddled business world. Chouinard's new book, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, should be required reading for Dennis Kozlowski, Bernard Ebbers, and Ken Lay during their lengthy prison terms. The leaders of Delta and Northwest Airlines could also benefit from his insight regarding how to run a successful enterprise without abandoning employees, customers, and concern for the environmental state of our world.

As the gap between those who have everything and those who have nothing except desperation and with the lack of hope continuing to grow,we need to understand that we are not isolated from anything anymore. The suffering people from Iraq to Somalia to New Orleans may seem to be a world away geographically, but their misery will one day be our misery.

There was a man at the turn of the last century who knew what was needed today. Eugene V. Debs, from Terre Haute, Ind. tried several times to lead this country with a universal outlook.

"While there is a lower class, I am of it. While there is a criminal element, I am in it. While there is a soul in prison, I am not free. But people take heart and hope; for the darkest hour is just before dawn and joy cometh with the morning."

We are stuck in a seemingly endless dark hour. Dylan's prophecy that "a hard rain is going to fall," has never seemed more pertinent. And while one day joy might come with the morning, it seems as though that promised sunrise has never been more distant than today.

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