On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter gave a nationally-televised address in which he identified what he believed to be a “crisis of confidence” among the American people. This came to be known as his “malaise” speech, although the word never appeared in it:

I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy… I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might. …

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning.

I’m asking you for your good and for your nation’s security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel… I have seen the strength of America in the inexhaustible resources of our people. In the days to come, let us renew that strength in the struggle for an energy-secure nation.

Since the energy crunch and the explosive rise in the price of oil in the first decade of the century, Carter’s speech has been re-assessed, usually in more positive light. In 2008, a U.S. News and World Report piece stated:

We would also do well to remember the sort of complexity and humility that Carter tried to inject into political rhetoric.. Carter was unwilling to pander to the people.. What Carter really did in the speech was profound. He warned Americans that the 1979 energy crisis—both a shortage of gas and higher prices—stemmed from the country’s way of life. “Too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does but by what one owns,” the president said. Consumerism provided people with false happiness, he suggested, but it also prevented Americans from re-examining their lives in order to confront the profound challenge the energy crisis elicited. Despite [some failures] Carter left behind a way of talking about the country’s promise and its need to confront what is undoubtedly one of its biggest challenges—to solve the energy crisis in a way that takes seriously both our limits and our greatness.

Ironically, I believe it was the Carter Doctrine philosophy—saying in 1980 that ..henceforth, the Persian Gulf has enormous strategic significance to the United States and that we are not going to permit any other country to control that region of the world… still in practice ’till this day—which is seemingly at the root of our problems.

I think the national profligacy and the refusal to confront that domestic dysfunction is parallel to the economic “Growth At Any Cost” philosophy which has recently detonated the banking system and Wall Street.  As corporate philosopher Roger Steare, author of Ethicability and founder of Roger Steare Consulting, says:

The major issue that we’re facing is that we have a closed system on this planet, with finite resources, and yet we have an economic philosophy which says that growth is good, and that growth can be infinite. The [mismatch] is something which our modern political and economic philosophy refuses to accept.

Steare raises a fairly obvious point in saying that the only way out of the current mess will be for individuals within banks and other financial institutions to “stop and think why they are doing what they are doing.” One would hope that these people could be capable of such a basic human act, but maybe not. Steare goes on to say:

“We also have to challenge leaders of corporations, the boards, and ask them why they make the decisions they make and how they can justify building corporate entities which seek to suck out the lifeblood from our world.”

“We have the capacity to do good, as we have a capacity for evil, and I am actually incredibly optimistic about the opportunity we find in this crisis for us to stop and think about the lives we lead ….

“I think the solution has to be that to remember as well as being greedy and fearful we also have the capacity for great kindness and love and hope and for me that is the solution.”

Steare performed integrity tests on more than 700 financial services executives in several major firms. The results indicate that, as a group, they score lower than average in honesty, loyalty and self-discipline.

more reading… Bill Moyers Interviews Andrew J. Bacevich; Ian Fraser

video: Bill Moyers Interviews Andrew J. Bacevich-part I