Article: The Zen of Politics

So what does it mean to be a statesman? If Bismarck was correct when he stated that politics is the art of the possible, then I would propose that statesmanship is the art of making the impossible, possible.

A statesman has the ability to raise the people of his nation, by his words and his example, above the pettiness and fear and desire for expediency that is so often their normal state of existence. This requires a degree of courage and magnanimity that very few human beings either ever possess or exhibit.

Politicians have the ability to make statesmanlike actions without actually becoming statesmen. A perfect example of this is Richard Nixon and his trip to the People's Republic of China in 1972. I do not consider this an act of statesmanship, because of the tremendous political pressure that Nixon was put under to open up the world's largest market to American business. In other words, it required no courage, only expediency.

One example was President Kennedy. An avid cold warrior while in the Senate, two years of dealing with the duplicity and venality of the military-industrial complex had been brought into sharp focus by the Cuban Missile Crisis, leading to JFK's moment of satori. The result was the beginning of a rapprochement with Khrushchev, that found its moral expression in his speech at the American University on June 10, 1963, and a solid achievement with the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty on July 25, 1963. How much further JFK might have gone, how much more he might have achieved, we will never know.

My second example is Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt. His moment of satori came after the Yom Kippur War in October 1973. He realized that military force of arms was not going to recover the lands that Egypt had lost subsequent to the Six Day War in 1967. When the opportunity presented itself, President Sadat went to Israel and spoke before its Knesset in November 1977. President Carter seized the opportunity to invite him and Prime Minister Begin to Camp David to hammer out a peace accord between their two nations. When he was assassinated in 1981, President Sadat had done the impossible: through statesmanship he had negotiated to regain the territory the Egyptians had lost to Israel—except the Gaza strip which was reserved for the Palestinians—and ensured a peace that has lasted ever since.

Enlightened action is not easy: for an individual, a community, a nation, or its leaders. We must set aside the long held beliefs that have held us back from change. It requires courage, and honesty, and self-awareness to overcome the bitter pettiness and jealousy that encompasses so much of our lives. Now that we are adults—to paraphrase the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians—we must put away those childish things that we have allowed to run—and often ruin—our lives.

If you do it because you expect recognition, fame or fortune, I fear you will be disappointed. The best you can hope for is that a small number of your friends and family, together with others who are seeking enlightenment, will take a brief moment to pat you on the back and say “Atta boy” (And please, I encourage everyone to encourage all of those who even attempt this difficult endeavor).

In all likelihood, though, you will have to be satisfied with the sound of one hand, clapping.

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