If I ruled the world,
Every day would be the first day of spring.
Every heart would have a new song to sing,
And we'd sing of the joy every morning would bring.
If I ruled the world,
Every man would be as free as a bird.
Every voice would be a voice to be heard,
Take my word we would treasure each day that occurred.
You may, as a child, have asked yourself, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” At least some of the children you played with may have told themselves, “I want to be President of the United States of America!” Little did they know that they had a better chance of being an astronaut or winning an Oscar or Nobel Prize than becoming President.
Did you ever ask yourself WHY you wanted to be the Big Boss? I’ll bet that it had something to do with POWER. How about, POWER, GLORY and WEALTH. Sounds good?
Are You Out of Your Mind?!
It has been said that you must either be crazy or a crusader to run for President. President Reagan was ridiculed in his day as “Crusader Rabbit.” It takes a whole lot of money. For Hillary Clinton, it totaled close to one billion dollars. And even if you get elected, it doesn’t mean you will be any good at it.
The skills to get elected are very different than those needed to run the country.
Ross Perot, a billionaire before Donald Trump, had great reluctance to run for President, even though many people urged him to do it. He called the White House a “fish bowl.” The public scrutiny is immense. You are continuously in the spotlight. You are the target of both assassination and criticism. If you do well, you might continue a little longer. If you fail, you will be blamed for everything.
The American government, and most republics throughout the world, is loaded with checks and balances, including separation of executive, legislative and judicial branches. This means that you don’t get to either make or interpret the laws. You merely get to enforce them for the modest pay of a quarter-of-a-million dollars. Surely there are easier ways to make money!
Being “Queen for the Day” Is No Piece of Cake
One of the most delightful TV series ever made is Netflix’s The Crown, based on the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning monarch in British history. The depiction of Queen Elizabeth is highly complimentary. She is beautiful, charming and brilliant with the highest possible character.
The Queen finds herself playing a hereditary role as Head of State for what was the largest empire the world has ever seen.
Her budget is $25 million per year, and she has very limited powers.
The elected Prime Minister is virtually her peer. The British media continually assess her performance, and many subjects of the crown would like to do away with the monarchy.
Queen Elizabeth comes across moral dilemmas that can make her life a living hell. For example, her sister, Princess Margaret, can’t marry the man she loves, because he is a commoner and a divorcee. Elizabeth gets blamed by her own sister for not bending the rules, while being lectured at by the Archbishop of Canterbury to not stain the dignity of the Church.
A most touching scene in the series focuses on Queen Elizabeth’s confession that she is subject to the will of God, and has a profound moral responsibility for the well-being of her people.
Would you really want a job like this?
Three American Presidents Who Made a Difference
In the United States, the challenges make the position even more problematical. Not only do you run the country, but you also act as Head of State, being the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. You are charged with both domestic and international issues. Either role, domestic or international, is far more than a full-time job. In addition, you get to answer to 50 separate states. To top this off, you only get to do this four-to-eight years, after which you will be ceremoniously ushered out of your home, The White House.
To make things even more complicated, the media act as the Fourth Branch of government. Originally, you only contented with the TV and radio networks, newspapers, magazines and books. Now you must answer to every kind of digital media…online, mobile and social.
Petty people are always out to defame your reputation. The opposition party, principally Republican or Democratic, is all out to undo you. They take huge delight at your gaffs and mess-ups. You end up thinking this is a truly thankless job.
Despite this, three people, much like you and me, assumed this role, overcame the lust of power, and truly made a difference on this planet, each with a very different personality and agenda. Somehow, they rose above their idiosyncrasies, and blessed us all, almost in spite of themselves.
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy started off by writing Profiles in Courage, an admirable study of American Presidents who made a difference at great political cost to themselves. He very narrowly won election against Richard Nixon, and ended up being shot and killed in Dallas well before his first term was up.
Although JFK was sexy, with a stunning wife, Jackie, he was a hopeless womanizer. The newspapers in his day covered it all up in the spirit of decency. Even though his dad, Joe Kennedy, was superrich, making all his money off Irish whiskey, JFK brilliantly managed to appeal to the middle class.
At considerable risk to his own credibility, JFK inaugurated the U.S. Space Program, and committed America to land a man on the moon before the end of the 1960’s. In addition, he launched the Peace Corps to help emerging economies around the world. Finally, JFK took strong steps to normalize relations with the U.S.S.R. and end the Cold War.
Ronald Reagan
President Reagan, a former movie star, came in as a strong conservative committed to overcoming the “evil empire” of the Soviet Union with “Star Wars” technology. Reagan had a personality that appealed to almost everyone. He didn’t appear to have a grudge against anyone. He was an inveterate optimist, even after someone took a shot at him in his first year in office.
At heart, Reagan was a populist. He wanted to “bring America back.” He began to decipher that more and more of his constituency deeply wanted to end the arms build-up and put an end to the revived Cold War. Reagan began to put out feelers to Russia, and justified those efforts to the hawks of the day with the motto, “Peace through Strength.”
When Mikhail Gorbachev emerged as Secretary General of the Soviet Union, Reagan found his match. Along with Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, Reagan and Gorbachev engaged in a series of summit conferences that profoundly changed the world. They effectually broke the back of the Cold War, when American and Soviet generals were welcomed to inspect one another’s military bases.
Bill Clinton
President Clinton was known as the “comeback kid,” ever since he came back as a Congressman in Arkansas after losing his second term to a competitor. He had an Oxford education, was brilliant, and highly suspect as a liberal. As fortune would have it, Ross Perot ran again both him and George Bush that year, taking five million votes away from largely Republicans. Clinton won on a plurality.
Bill had the incredible courage to choose Senator Al Gore as his running mate. Two Southern boys on the same Democratic ticket, unheard of since the Civil War! Al had a brilliant vision of both technology and the environment to which Bill thoroughly resonated.
Together, they championed the Digital Superhighway, which became the Internet we all know and love. They also took a very progressive stance toward global warming and sustainability, giving the “New Paradigm” political currency.
Clinton took the American economy out of the doldrums, roaring back with a new wave of entrepreneurialism, largely radiating from Silicon Valley, where his daughter, Chelsea, studied. The Internet played on the strength of AT&T, which was then the best telephone system in the world. His efforts made the digital realm into a kind of currency. In the process of promoting the World Wide Web, he brought deep globalization to America.
The Greatest Among You Shall Serve the Least
Jesus Christ ignited a world revolution around His concept of the Kingdom of God, which enshrined Love, even of one’s enemies, as the operating principal. In this, He followed Buddha’s stress on nonviolence, as well as Emperor Ashoka’s efforts to take Buddhism into the political realm. Jesus would be followed by Emperor Constantine, who legally established Christianity within the Roman Empire.
In the last 2,000 years, the idea of government as something other than subjugation and exploitation gradually made its way throughout, not only Europe, but the Planet, itself. We have collectively been shifting from dominance by the third chakra, Power, to dominance by the fourth chakra, Love.
In recent years, especially with the moral and conscious leadership of men like Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, pressure has been placed upon rulers and administrators throughout the world to truly serve their constituencies, not merely try to manipulate them. Thus, it is becoming harder and harder to be a rascal, or a “little Hitler.”
As President Lincoln put it, “You can fool some of the people some of the time, and all the people some of the time, BUT YOU CAN’T FOOL ALL THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME."
Changing Our World as a Transformational Agent
Perhaps someone reading this will eventually become President of the United States, or even Secretary General of the United Nations. She might even be an American-born South Asian. Who becomes President matters less and less when we realize where the real power lies.
Transformation! It lies with each of us who are committed to making a difference in the world.
Today, we can leverage mobile and social media and networks like never before. We have the potential of being in conversation with several billion people at once. You can be in elementary school, or retired. It doesn’t matter.
You hold within your hand the means to change the world. You don’t have to wait for the next President, or the right President.
Perhaps your calling is to truly run for President of this, or any other country. However, we all share the calling to be Citizens of Planet Earth, and Children of God. It is time for your divinity to show up!
Why Would You Want to Rule the World? appeared first on http://consciousowl.com.
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