What do we want?

This is the Cookie Monster. He wants cookies and he wants them now; he’s so fixated on eating all the cookies there’s simply no other thought in his furry blue head.

He cares not for the needs of others. He thinks nothing of the long term environmental consequences of rampant consumption such as his. He will never stop to consider the health impacts of his high-fat, high-sugar lifestyle nor contemplate the cruel futility of a desire he can never satisfy… there will never be enough cookies.

Selfish and impulsive, greedy and impatient; the Cookie Monster has only one thought, a notion so basic it requires no brain, just stomach.

Me. Want. Now.

We’ve all had our Cookie Monster moments. We’ve all played the spoiled toddler or the self-absorbed teen but eventually we realise there are bigger things to think about than our own, immediate wants.

Unfortunately, our modern society is based on Cookie Monster Economics; it demands endless, mindless consumption to keep the wheels of industry turning, even though what we’re really consuming are our lives, our communities and the natural world.

That’s why we need bigger minds to lead us, minds that think beyond immediate individual wants to perceive the future needs of us all. That’s what real leaders do; they imagine a world that works for us all and empower us to get there together.

But such minds are often shoved aside by entitled, self-congratulating narcissists; egomaniacs obsessed with their own power and glory… who we sometimes vote for.

That’s right; we put the Cookie Monster in charge.

And we wonder what’s wrong with our leadership.