I believe a drastic change in the way the elected officials are brought into office is needed. In this line of thinking, when new government officials are elected I think they should be required to take a space flight into orbit to experience The Overview Effect.
The Overview Effect is described on wikipedia as "the experience of seeing firsthand the reality of the Earth in space, which is immediately understood to be a tiny, fragile ball of life, "hanging in the void", shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere. From space, astronauts claim,[5] national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide people become less important, and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this "pale blue dot" becomes both obvious and imperative."