I think people would be surprised by how many people have learned to manage their “illness” and overcome what could have been overwhelming obstacles in their lives and have actually been great leaders. Some are famous, like Winston Churchill, others are unsung heros.

When someone is in a crisis or experiencing great difficulties, they need a new perspective or there will be no change and the same holds true for a nation. This is the point that Tom is making. People who have overcome great obstacles and effected great and positive change in their lives are best equipped to help others when a crisis hits. They already have learned how to assess a potentially overwhelming situation and respond appropriately rather than just react out of fear.

It takes great discipline and strength to learn to choose to be an over-comer every day of your life. We need leaders with strength like that who can help our country stare an overwhelming situation in the face, calmly and correctly assess the crisis, and respond rather than react. By responding, we are in control. When we react, the crisis is in control. I want a President who has gone through the fire and come out refined, fine tuned and tuned in to reality, one who can face fearsome situations with calculated calm learned through trials, and can inspire our nation to respond appropriately.

interesting article, problem is, we need someone who will speak this Truth:

we’re not going to grow, consume, indebt and complicate our way out of the problems of growth, consumption, debt and complexity.

loudly and clearly and in no uncertain terms.

i have no faith or confidence that the average, modern, industrial primate–steeped as they are in the Myth of Progress–will respond favorably to this reality-based message or messenger.

–

“Protecting bits of nature here and there will not prevent humanity from losing our life support system. Even if areas dedicated to conserving plants, animals, and other species that provide Earth’s life support system increased tenfold, it would not be enough without dealing with the big issues of the 21st century: population, overconsumption and inefficient resource use.

[...]

“The world population, currently at seven billion, is well beyond Earth’s ability to sustain. By 2050, with a projected population of 10 billion people and without a change in consumption patterns, the cumulative use of natural resources will amount to the productivity of up to 27 planet Earths, the study found.

“Sustaining the current seven billion people on the planet requires a major shift in resource use. At present, the average U.S. citizen’s ecological footprint is about 10 hectares, while a Haitian’s is less than one. The planet could sustain us if everyone’s footprint averaged two ha, Mora said.

“If there are more people, then there are simply fewer resources available for everyone, so population control will be needed along the lines of ‘one child per woman’, he said.”
- Data Shows All of Earth’s Systems in Rapid Decline

–

Tom Wootton genuflects to “GE, Disney, HP, Microsoft, and Apple” but they are a large part of the problem, not part of a reality-based adaptation to finite Earth (there is no “solution” to our looming crises, in the amerikan, capitalist/fascist, Ponzi/pyramid-scheme, mentally ill style)

and we also need to stop the modern practice of psychotherapy which focuses on individuals out-of-context:

“Western society’s preoccupation with individualism comes at the expense of collective action which could make a real difference to everyone’s quality of life. Our cultural emphasis on therapy as a process of change for individuals, in isolation, is disempowering.”
- We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy — And the World’s Getting Worse

we don’t need a bipolar president.

we need Revolution!

–

“This is, for me, the fundamental point: at what point does a riot become a revolution? Must the London youth don Black Bloc attire and shout utopian anarchist slogans while burning cop cars before their acts are recognized as a kind of political rebellion? Must they be able to articulate themselves in a way that is intelligible to readers of Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben and Antonio Negri before their riotous flashmobs are acknowledged as the highest form of networked insurrection yet achieved? I suspect that when revolution comes, the ones who have been too long waiting for it will be the very ones who miss it. For they will be too accustomed to looking in the wrong direction, waiting for the wrong words, the wrong actors, the wrong kinds of political deeds.

“The London Riots may not be pretty but as the old-lefty adage goes: ‘Revolution is not a dinner party, nor an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be advanced softly, gradually, carefully, considerately, respectfully, politely, plainly, and modestly. A revolution is an insurrection…’ And the London Riots are, whether we like it or not, what an insurrection might look like if the forces of capitalism do not peacefully, voluntarily relinquish their stranglehold.”
- Is Rioting Revolutionary?