Stephan Schwartz, Enlightened Leaders, and the Battle Facing Our World

I’ve been lucky enough to have been referred to one of the most enlightened writers on the planet, Stephan A. Schwartz, who has generously accepted my request to let me interview him for my next book. I invite readers to visit Schwartz’ website to get a sense for who he is in terms of the sheer breadth of his work.

While you’re there, note that he’s connected with some of the people from the landmark film/book “What The Bleep Do We Know?” and all the incredible thinking associated with that project, e.g., the confluence of quantum physics, metaphysics, and epistemology. My kind of guy, to be sure.

To me, all this raises an interesting and somewhat disturbing point, on which I’d like your feedback, if I may:

I have no doubt that the world would be a wonderful place in which to live if all our leaders – in both the public and private sector – were as enlightened as Schwartz. But the simple truth is that they’re not. In fact, most of them – while they may be smart, hard-working people – are on missions that have nothing whatsoever to do with improving the quality of life of the other seven billion people on the planet. As a result, we as a species have sunk to new depths of poverty, hostility, fascism, injustice, fanaticism, and environmental degradation.

So let’s take a moment and ask: Who will win here? The forces of compassion and enlightenment? Or the forces of selfishness and greed?

Now, you might say that I’m oversimplifying, or that I’m off base altogether. For instance, if you’re a disciple of Ayn Rand, you’d say that I’m totally missing the point – that selfishness is the only force that drives the creation of any real good. I’m not sure that thinking holds much water in the light of history, but there are people who claim that nonetheless.

Or, you could argue that the modern corporate sustainability movement is a sincere and ultimately effective way to interweave ethics and social consciousness in with the profit motive.  I’d certainly like to think there is some truth there.

Of course, there are dozens of other tacks you can take here as well in terms of political philosophy, economic theory, international relations, theology, etc.  As always, I look forward to your viewpoints.