Adult Supervision?

In yesterday's New York Times, columnist Thomas L. Friedman asked, rhetorically: "Aren't there any adults here?"

He was talking about the economy and referring to the Congress and other political and financial elites, but the question has broader application.

Friedman quotes Dov Seidman, C.E.O. of LRN, talking about two kinds of values: "situational values" and "sustainable values."

Leaders guided by situational values act however the situation allows, regardless of the wider or longer term interests of their communities. The governing thought:"I'll be gone when the bill comes due." A variation of this attitude in my naval experience was "it won't happen on my watch, and I don't care what happens on the next guy's watch."

Those guided by sustainable values say, instead, "I will never be gone. I will always be here. I must behave in ways that sustain - my employees, my customers, my suppliers, my environment, my country and future generations."

Those guided by sustainable values are the adults in society. They are the nonagenarians who plant trees. They exhibit what we used to call (in the Navy) "forehandedness." They look ahead. They build for the future. We need more adults.