Underdogs

I was born with a chip on my shoulder and a nose for the disenfranchised. It wasn't enough that I was Jewish. I also wanted to be Italian and black.

I'm from Philly. And if, while I was growing up, Chicago or LA was the "Second City," Philly was the fourth or fifth. We — like my current home of Boston — were a city of also-rans and underdogs. (At least Boston was until the local sports teams stahted getting wicked-good.)

In any case, I had a love for hockey — a fairly minor sport in the U.S. at the time, compared to the majors of baseball and football and basketball — and my hero was an average-sized diabetic guy named Bobby Clarke from the hardscrabble mining town of Flin Flon, Manitoba.

Clarkie captained the Flyers for seven seasons, and was an incredibly effective leader and fan favorite during his tenure — because we (as did his teammates) relate to the underdog, we speak their language, know their pain, and respect their struggle. And because an underdog works their ass off, they generally have our empathy and our support.

But this week's focus is not hockey. It's this: It's not a bad thing that the U.S. has fallen from our geopolitical (somewhat self-proclaimed) designation of alpha dog.

We've been at or near the top for a long time, in terms of GDP, education, quality exports, military might, international standing, etc. But for a variety of reasons, not least to do with our so-called leadership, we have lost our footing and stumbled badly. Here's the good news: It's precisely what we need. Because it's not just our stock market that needs to recalibrate itself, it's our whole country. And it's not just our leadership that's lacking, it's us.

The solution is about more than simply choking down some humble pie. It's about regaining the hunger, the work ethic, and the original ideas that once fueled the American Dream — and yes, the humility borne of eating bread sandwiches and beans for a while.

We have all gotten so fat and lazy — soft, both physically and mentally. We feel a sense of entitlement disproportional to our drive and our abilities. We have forgotten how to produce quality goods, and how to manage nearly anything effectively — particularly ourselves. We are needy without being giving and charitable, vehement without being right, self-righteous without being ethical. And we seem to think this is all our birthright.

As a nation, we strive to export democracy as if a global manifest destiny. We start wars we cannot win, fight them from afar, and leave them unfinished. Arguably, the last time we got ourselves out of a military action cleanly and on top was World War II. (And to achieve that, we caused the greatest humanitarian crisis the world has ever seen.)

To be sure, the U.S. is still a force to be reckoned with. But all is not as easy as, say, strapping on a flight suit and claiming "Mission Accomplished" anymore. I use a military reference, but our troubles have spread to all aspects of the new world order in which we find ourselves.

At the office, I joke that I have no desire to be a top-level executive in our company; rather I want to be an ex–top-level executive. Because when they go (as they have just last week, in fact), they leave with outsized, golden parachutes. And the suits get these obscenely generous parting gifts whether they have done a good job or not. Because in the U.S., once you attain a certain level on the ziggurat, there is no longer any accountability. Film directors get final cut, because who needs editors? Banks that have recently been bailed out are not actually required to put that money back into our failing economy, because why would Congress ever deign to stipulate that banks not simply hoard our tax dollars? And the Executive branch of government attempts to expand its powers at every turn, because who needs to be checked and balanced by the pesky Legislature and the Judiciary?

On the world stage, we do much the same — presuming our place high up the ziggurat, and with it, presuming that we need not be accountable. We try war crimes in The Hague, but not at home; invoke the Geneva Conventions when it's convenient. We press for free and fair elections elsewhere, but can barely hold them here.

We have certainly been mismanaged at both the national and international level, but it's a mistake to fault only those at the top. Yes, for example, our big banks may have sold millions of bad mortgages, but we're the ones who have been foolishly signing those notes, stretching us beyond our means. We celebrate the ordinary and elect Joe and Judy Sixpacks to high office, then turn an apathetic cheek to their folksy incompetence. (I've written about just this national acceptance of mediocrity before, but the horse is not yet dead, and it needs beating.)

There is a perfect global economic shit-storm brewing, and our impending election of a new president will play a key role in how and when and if we find our way out of the muck. But there are 300 million of us in these United States, and the turnaround of our country depends as much on us as it does on Barack Obama or John McCain. Indeed, our next president must help to restore our standing and our credibility in the world. But we will be the key to the new economy, and how we respond to adversity will determine how we will live. And it can only help in the long run that we see ourselves not as big dogs, but as underdogs.

Comments

[Susan T]

You're not only Jewish but also fat and lazy? sorry - lol but really, you didn't even mention that today is 90 days to inauguration day!