half-million popular votes. The election was decided, for the
first time in American history, by the Supreme Court, leading to
an unprecedented diminution, in the minds of many, of a body
once thought to be above partisan politics. And while President
Bush responded forcefully, if belatedly, to the terrorist attacks
of 9/11, his administration quickly devolved into a string of
disasters—the unwarranted, protracted war in Iraq; the shame-
ful symbolism of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisons; the
bungled rescue of hurricane-battered New Orleans; the outing
of C.I.A. agent Valerie Plame; the unprecedented politicization
of the Justice Department; and not one but two economic
crises. The 2008 meltdown was the worst since the Great De-
pression. Stocks plunged almost 1,000 points in a single day,
and 1.2 million American jobs vanished in the first ten months
of the year.
If political leaders disappointed us, corporate leaders proved
even worse. As evidence emerged of greed and wrongdoing at
such once-esteemed institutions as Lehman Brothers and major
banks, the public and the media called for new leadership and
greater regulation. Without drawing much attention to them-
selves, capable people continued to keep our institutions afloat—
able university presidents, city managers, state governors, heads
of non-government organizations, and others. But we increas-
ingly perceived authentic leaders to be an endangered species,
buffeted by events and circumstances over which they seemed to
have little or no control.
A scientist at the University of Michigan once listed what
he considered to be the ten basic dangers to our society. First
and most significant is the possibility of some kind of nuclear
war or accident that would destroy the human race. The sec-
ond danger is the prospect of a worldwide epidemic, disease,
Mastering the Context