The Art of Grit

(8 Minutes)

In moments of political turbulence, when tensions rise and markets shake, we glimpse a difficult truth: politics, for all its lofty language about representation and collective ideals, often exposes humanity’s lowest common denominator.

The current global trade wars — with their tit-for-tat tariffs, fragmented alliances, and rising economic indigestion — will likely become a case study for future generations. Not because they exhibit the height of human strategy, but because they lay bare how systems designed to uphold collective ideals can, paradoxically, amplify our most self-serving impulses once the thrones of power are secured.

The theory of democracy rests on a noble premise: that by voting, by collectively choosing, we create a government that mirrors the highest shared values of a people. Yet, reality tells a different story. Time and again, those elected to embody vision and service succumb to the raw temptations of power. The ideals that carried them into office are often the first casualties of their tenure. Once in the seat of command, self-preservation, tribalism, and short-term wins overshadow the commitment to long-term stewardship.

This is not just a flaw of particular individuals. It is, in many ways, a reflection of human nature itself.

We are a species primed first for survival. And survival often means prioritizing immediate needs over collective futures, personal gain over communal well-being. It means that when systems allow a measure of self-interest to creep in — and most do — those systems are inevitably bent, twisted, or broken to serve narrower ends. Laws, rules, social norms — these are merely barricades. Static, designed to channel behavior, but not immune to being skirted, hacked, or rationalized away when enough incentive or pressure is applied.

In this way, politics — perhaps more transparently than any other human arena — reveals our inability to consistently prioritize the greater good over the immediate self.

And so, while politics serves a necessary purpose, it can never be a perfect system. I would argue it is a third of the way there, at best. The missing pieces lie outside of any structural reform or clever policy. They lie in the ungoverned spaces of self-accountability — in the unlegislated realm where individual conscience meets collective duty.

And therein lies the tragic rub: self-accountability is not humanity’s default setting. It demands the ability to resist the pull of short-term survival instincts. It demands a higher-order evolution — a level of emotional and moral maturity that, while possible, remains the exception rather than the rule.

We have built civilizations atop laws because we know that left ungoverned, chaos wins. We have built social norms because we recognize, dimly and reluctantly, that coexistence demands boundaries. But these structures, while necessary, are ultimately brittle. They are not living things; they do not grow alongside our shifting realities. They are static guards designed to be obeyed but also, inevitably, broken when personal incentive outweighs collective restraint.

Until we collectively evolve — until we forge a culture where caring for one another is seen not as an extraordinary virtue but as the basic price of admission for society — stupidity, selfishness, and shortsightedness will continue to win the day.

History shows us this pattern on endless repeat: systems emerge, ideals are hailed, leaders are elected, power is corrupted, and society must either reform or decay. It is not cynicism to observe this; it is realism. And perhaps it is in this realism that some faint hope still lives — because awareness of our patterns, painful as it is, is the first step toward transcending them.

If the global indigestions of today teach future generations anything, let it be this:

Progress is not inevitable. Evolution of thought and compassion is not automatic. And the battle between our better angels and our baser instincts is not won by setting rules alone. It must be fought daily, privately and publicly, in the heart of every individual.

Politics, at its best, can be a mirror of our collective aspirations.

But politics, at its most honest, is also a mirror of how far we still have to go.