Cooperation? Not from today's so-called "leaders."

Probably the most disappointing thing for me in the world of today is the complete unwillingness of people who believe in different things to work with one another to reach a form of compromise that will be acceptable to both of them. These days, we need to be right all the time--and therefore anyone who disagrees with us must be wrong, so we don't have to listen to what they say, to the points that they make. This is simply wrong. In my life, I've learned just as much, if not more, from the people with whom I disagree than from those who agree with me. Those who agree with me are saying pretty much the same thing that I'm saying, while those who disagree with me are giving me a new perspective to consider--if I choose to consider it. Usually these days, we don't consider an "opponent's" argument; rather, we find ways to try to destroy it. It makes us feel better about ourselves, it gives us that sense of righteousness that we love so much. But it makes us poorer thinkers and less compassionate human beings, and it keeps us ignorant of so much of the world.

Our politicians are the worst example of this type of thinking, I believe. How many votes in the past decade have been split completely along party lines? How many politicians have even considered voting against their party lines simply because they're afraid of the consequences? This lack of cooperation and working together has helped create a system that no longer serves as the important part of the checks and balances that it used to serve as, especially when members of a particular party dominate most of the system. We're in deep trouble, and it's mostly because politicians blindly support others only due to their party affiliation.

We used to see many Republicans and Democrats working together to create legislation that meant something, to create and modify laws that were for the good of everyone in the country. Now, the major questions seem to be: What do I get out of it?, and How will this harm the opposing party? Now we have partisan votes on everything--and there's no way that you can tell me that so many people agree on so many issues, especially when those issues are more harmful to their constituents than helpful.

Somehow, we've got to work cooperation back into our system. We need to find ways to penalize those people who try to block cooperation in order to push their own agendas. We need to find ways to get more people's input--true, constructive input--into everything that we do, especially when it affects many more other people. If we don't, we're pretty sure to continue down a road that's pretty sure to lead to our destruction as a society. It's called self-destruction, and history has shown us that it's happened before, many times. We're not immune to it.