“It’s always High Noon in America. Heroes save the day while we watch as ignorant, passive, perhaps even cowardly bystanders. These myths cannot inspire us to great deeds in the real world. These are fun fantasies of despair, an admission that we can no longer imagine a way to become strong.” Larry Kummer, in Fabius Maximus
When the challenges we face in our human societies are as complex and far reaching as they are today, it’s easy to look for relief from some kind of iconic savior, appointed or self-nominated. It’s natural for human beings to seek the path of least-resistance, to adapt and adjust and look to someone else for order and control. It’s a survival mechanism that has served us well for millennia. The purpose that adaptation may have once served – to identify safe and secure places for rest and recharging, and leaders for village building – no longer, for the most part exists, though. We’ve made everything convenient, climate controlled, sanitized and comfortable. And our natural biological response to that is to keep wanting it, because it feels good.
If we were great, our politicians would put country over party; if we were great, we would have a healthy opposition demanding electoral reform; if we were great, we would have healthcare for all and not let people die simply because they don’t have enough money; if we were great, the wealthy would not have such an inordinate influence on our politics; if we were great, over 30,000 people wouldn’t die from guns each year; and if we were great, we would not have a white supremacist and habitual dissembler as president. Ross Rosenfeld, 
Yesterday afternoon I accidentally cut off another shopper with my cart on the way out of the store. I took my own advice about better connecting with people, looked directly at her, smiled apologetically and said, “I’m sorry!”
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