What the hell's so great about being a "leader?"

AllentownJake has been a Democratic Underground member for about 15 months now and has already managed to crank out 12,503 posts. (By comparison, I've been with DU since 2001 and I'm barely closing in on 3,750 posts.)

Must be that Bush Economic Miracle(tm) keeping everybody fully and gainfully employed. Anyhow, Jake says America v2.0 -- particularly now during the first few months of the post-Bushean era -- needs a little respect and love from the rest of the world again. And our new president, charismatic adoration magnet Barack Obama, is just the guy to bring some home with him.

As Jake puts it:

"If all we get out of this Presidency is our restored standing as a leader and good in the eyes of the rest of the world. That will be a miracle in (and) of itself.

I'll be happy. Everything after that is gravy."

Ummmmmm..... Graaaaaaaaaavyyyyyyy... Quick! Somebody draw a Homer Simpson icon with plenty of saliva drooling from the corners of his mouth. But on the real side...


How about trying to follow the civilized countries of the world for a change -- the western European social democracies come to mind, along with the former Brit colonies Canada and Australia.

New Zealand's doing well, at least until some snooping petro-geologist discovers OUR OIL in a sub-oceanic puddle 20 miles off the North Island's western coast. Then they're fucked, along with the "rag heads" and "sand Ni**ers" of the middle east.

Africa's next, with Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya about to join Nigeria in wearing that giant Standard-Mobil-Shell-BP-Conoco-Exxon-Unocal bullseye the rest of the world has come to know and loathe. Leadership...

Who the hell needs this country's leadership? Who ever has besides those land speculating bastards and mass-scale property thieves who invented the "white man's burden" and "Manifest Destiny?"

Why not discuss the white man's idea of leadership with the ghosts of the 15 million original Americans who were wiped out by "guns, germs and steel," in the words of the great, great cultural geographer and anthropologist Jared Diamond.

Read Howard Zinn's "Peoples' History..." and learn what attempted leadership gets you. It ought to be a capital crime; here, it's woven into the fabric of our wretchedly phony creation myth. We have to be the world's leader because everybody else is just too... a) lazy; b) incompetent; c) anti-capitalist; or d) all of the above.

A little well-earned humility would go a long way these days, it seems to me.

But, as always, your mileage may differ. In fact, it may require wiping out all New Zealand fisheries just to keep that ol' tank topped off.