Leapfrog. We've all heard it applied to Developing World countries, right? As in, these countries don't need to repeat every single step we took on our path to development. And we'd all tend to agree that it'd be good if they could leapfrog over the hellhole factories our grandparents worked in, brutal social practices like child labor, and the inefficient old technologies, like those big thick glasses with the ugly black frames.

The sexier version of the leapfrog idea says these countries should leapfrog over even our more recent technologies, go straight to cell phones & skip the landlines; or go straight to solar PV panels, instead of massive dams.

Most of us can see there's some sense in this. It's not a perfect idea, because sometimes the older ways are healthier or more efficient or more sustainable. But cell phones vs landlines, PV panels vs coal plants... I suspect most of us would nod at that thought.

In my mind, the leapfrog idea wants to bounce ahead of this image. Where it wants to go is toward imagining where we could leapfrog to. Because the actual game we played didn't just mean you had to bend down & hold a squat while the kids in the rear jumped over you. Played right, it would go on & on, a constantly-moving chain of kids, their positions always changing, the whole thing moving forward. That was the aim, to see where you could make the chain go, not just to replace the leaders with the laggards.

But there are counter-ideas that hold us back from seriously pursuing leapfrogging, for ourselves. Perhaps most powerful is the fact that we all know our social & economic & political world has produced some real problems. And the natural tendency is to look first to "fix" them... and not mess the good things up. Fix the bad, keep the good, right? And there's some damn good roots to this desire. Most valuable, that it expresses our desire to ease the suffering of those who're worst off in our societies.

We see how we are.

And yet, I think that as a sole focus - just making sure we fix the broken things - this hurts us, and holds us back. All of us. I think we all know this... even from our childhood leapfrog days. It's the equivalent of focusing solely on the kid in front of us, looking to put our hands on their back, aiming just to jump that one place ahead. Which, if I can get leapfrog-technical for a moment, is what a really bad leapfrogger does.

The truly great leapfroggers (think Cyclone Timmy, or that little Geraldine kid with the knees) well, they had... vision. They didn't just stare at the one ass in front of them, they saw the whole line stretching ahead. You'd see them, looking out ahead, locked in some dream-state, and then just... skipping, skimming almost, really fast and low and smooth, all the way down the line, barely putting any weight on you, as they flew overhead.

More leapflier than leapfrogger, to tell the truth.

Because what they really wanted, the goal that drew them forward, was to make sure that the last jump they made, the spot where they'd have to finally bend down & stop, stretched the game out to an interesting place. You know, landed the chain right at a teacher's feet, or next to the ditch, or maybe at the door of the ice cream place. Visionaries.

I sometimes wonder if the kids who were really bad leapfroggers ended up in Congress, or as talking heads, or productivity-boosting, power-suited, management consultants. Because if you sketched out - honestly - our political agenda today, you'd find they see it, discuss it, frame it in ways guaranteed to land us, heavily, on the next kid's back. Where we'll likely twist a leg, spin into a slow-mo sprawl, and then - you remember it - leapfrog humiliation, the face plant in the grass.

So let's take the leapfrog test & apply it to our Agenda. Ask of each "issue," is this a thing which other nations already have, or we had in the recent past? Because if so, they're likely being framed in narrow terms, as taking just the one jump ahead. Now even if they are, it's not that we don't want to do them - we do. But we want to fulfill them, and then surpass them. By coming at them on a different trajectory, taking a wider & longer view, making fewer heavy landings.

Because these old ways are tying up another, rising, force within us, one that's more innovative & imaginative. We all understand the churning mixture within the human heart, the way our wonderful multi-minds wrestle with the multiple (often clashing) views within us. And I think we also all know that changing times - and especially crises - require us to jettison narrow, old approaches.

We need to cut loose from the ideas that tether us to a time & place we need to get out of. From opinions & terms & approaches to issues that hold us back from entering wider, brighter, more interesting lands. I want to see what's at the head of the line, not the next guy's back. And besides, if America & Americans aren't focused out there, aren't going to lead, innovate, create, then... please don't finish that thought. It depresses me.

Universal Health Care. Most other developed nations have it. It's a good thing to have. Americans should have it. But if the goal is defined as simply replicating what others have today, then a host of problems arise. The entire U.S. health care system already takes 17% of GDP, while most others achieve the same or better results for 10%. That's a $900 billion a year difference. And if the health care fight takes place within the old terms, it'll be hard to add 40 million people, and preserve all the existing health care industry segments (e.g. the insurers), and deal with the problems every other nation is already facing, namely, like how to handle an aging population.

Instead, is there a way forward that'll get us universal health care, but with reduced costs? Through more prevention? More mobilization of the wider self-help & social support networks, with all their skills & imaginations? More direct discussion around the expense of treatment in the last weeks of life?

Cars & Roads & Transportation. If we salvage the Big 3 & rebuild our existing road & bridge infrastructure, we'll basically end up where the Germans or Japanese are. Or, put another way, we'll end up where we were in the 50's or the 80's. And - for all the talk of change - that's where an enormously powerful set of vested interests wants to take us. For instance, investing in infrastructure sounds good. And it's certainly better than letting it fall to pieces. But anyone who's worked on the insides of infrastructure projects, in any country, can tell you about the political favoritism & the corruption built into the Iron Triangles. The ones who pick which roads get built or repaired, which firms get the work, how fast they work. Same debate with the Big 3. They made their money from SUV's & trucks. And it'll cost us more upfront to shift them to lighter vehicles, or plug-in hybrids. So... Reform along existing lines? Or Transform?

And are there ways we could boost rapid transit in some corridors instead? Bus Rapid Transit has a lighter capital cost & is faster to build. Or go to plug-in's, but jump over the old financing game by leasing the batteries, thus making the sticker prices of plug-in's or electrics lower than gas-burning cars? Or what if we boost broadband & tie it in to increased working from home & from local telework centers? It's not for all, but in some places, maybe.

Run the Leapfrog test on any of issue you give a damn about. It's pretty easy, actually, because the powers that be are already pitching the "one step ahead" line, looking for a hook in you & I. Playing on the fact that even though we dream of more, and even though we know this isn't actually a new "future" (in fact, it's more like what we just had), that part of us still responds to it. They're counting on being able to bully us, not just politically, but on our ideas, playing on the fact that we're just not sure we can make it to the head of the line, not sure we can reach a truly different future.

Hear that? That's the sound of the powerful, in full battle cry: "Sure, let's End The Wars... but we can't afford to reduce our military spending, much less change how we see & relate to the world. It's imperative that we Stabilize The Financial System... but we need to keep the big boys, in fact, they may have to get even bigger. Let's solve that Mortgage Crisis... and the developers & the construction companies & the suppliers & the realtors, and keep on turning homes into real estate, keep on expanding their square footage. By all means, let's Green Our Utilities... through tax breaks that reward the biggest, dirtiest & most centralized players in the game. And yes, of course, we have to think of the future, and Rebuild Our Schools... nothing like good ole bricks & mortar. And sure, you can talk later about all those new ways of learning."

Truth is, I'm not sure we have any other choice than to leapfrog out of the old, to bounce over the best others already offer, and to aim toward something new. To land somewhere new. Just to weather the storm that's already upon us, I'm not convinced we can do it just by reinflating & re-building & re-regulating the old.

And yes, for me, that's frightening. When the heart of an old machine dies, and you go to pump it, you may just get black goo -  something worse. But from within that fear, I also find my hope rising. Hope that finally - at last - we can now move beyond just dreaming about & thinking about & talking about the ways and means to a more soul-satisfying future. Hope that we can begin to live it, embody it, express it. Bring it into being.

But the only way I can see to get there is by lifting out eyes off the butt of that kid squatting down in front of us, by looking up & out toward that big green field that stretches out ahead, just past the front of that chain. A chain made up of our ever-moving, generations-long, game of leapfroggers.

Game on.