Where Are the Wise?

Peggy Noonan's Saturday Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal struck a chord with me.

She was addressing the state of the nation's psyche, and the effect the economic downturn is having. She quoted an old friend of her's who works in government. He is someone of authority.

He told her that a hard part of his job right now is that there is no one to talk to. Not literally-- he's surrounded by people in his job all day. It's just that he doesn't have any thoughtful people to talk to in government. There are no wise men, people taking the long view and going forth each day with a deep sense of time, and a sense of responsibility for the future. There's no one to go to for advice. It's a void that is governing us.

I've described this in the past few weeks as a form of sleepwalking. Other writers have described it as a function of our immediacy-fixation, a re-wiring of our brains, a result on constant access online, that is less and less likely to think deeply and ponder the long-term, complex issues. We are married to the quick fix. We are bored with deep focus.

Just pondering.