by Don Nash, Unknown News
Oct. 22, 2004
Most of the nations that are politically existent on our planet today, are without leadership. Granted, there are a significant number of politicians but that does not translate into leadership. Politicians rank just slightly lower than slugs on the old evolutionary species rating system. It is my conjecture that most any normal person in our world, would rather have human exchange with a used car salesman than with a politician.
So it is almost easy to understand why our world is poised on the brink of total annihilation. Politicians are fundamentally opposed to the qualities that make for an effective world class leader. Politicians are quick to cloak themselves in the political expedient. Politicians are even quicker to succumb to the lure of money. Especially if the money is in large denominations and there are no questions asked and there is no particularly hard thinking that is required. Politicians have very little actual involvement with governments. They do have the fancy government offices and staffs and the equally fancy perks that come with the political territory. But politicians really do very little governing.
Politicians are about public relations. Politicians are about deceit. Politicians are about deceiving the residents of any neighborhood, village, town, city, county, state, and or nation into believing whatever line of sanitized and spun nonsense that the politician is told these foolish knaves will swallow. Politicians are about the ’pretty face’. Everything is good and babies are wonderful and life is beautiful and any politician will see to it that everyone has a new car, boat, house, and lower taxes.
Politicians and truth are mutually exclusive concepts. Politicians are fundamentally opposed to truth and they are adamantly opposed to telling people truth. Truth means that there has to have been some sort of cognitive thought process and deliberative consideration of pressing issues, human needs, and public recognition of truth. In today’s modern reality, truth has become the ’bitter pill’ and it is best if the general public has no access to ’bitter pills’. There is one glaring exception and that would be R. Limbaugh and he has access to all kinds of ’special’ pills. I digress.
There may have been a time when the politician and truth would have been considered to be inseparable but, that time is long before my remembrance. I have vague memories of Dwight Eisenhower and for some reason, truth and Eisenhower went together. It is all together possible that my memory is just playing tricks. From the days of Lyndon Johnson, truth has taken the extended vacation from politics and it has been a downhill slide ever since. Even the Baptist Christian Jimmy Carter was as divorced from telling truth as any of those that followed after him.
And so we’ve come to the twenty first century and with the new century we have entered the political days of perpetual deceit. Elections are won and lost on lies. National policies are enacted or retracted using lies. Treaties and global agreements are negotiated or un-negotiated with the diplomacy of lies. Political appointments are installed and sworn into their respective new positions by advice and consent using deceit. Wars are preemptive, overly exempted, wantonly cowardly, and maliciously commenced using lies. Genocide thus becomes and in the classical definition, modus operandi of lying and deceiving presidents and prime ministers. War that is categorized as “preemptive war” is genocide.
Real leadership that would be effective for our world, would require some human traits that the anywhere politician just does not possess. A true world class leader would first have to be honest. Honest with himself and then honest with people. Classical honesty demands a level of courage that has not been seen in our shared political world for a number of years. The true world class leader would have to be forthright with the people being led. Forthright about his own limitations but also, forthright with the world as to the actual state of affairs the world finds itself in. An honest leader cannot paint the world as a “warm and beauteous garden of delights” to be had by those of privilege. By the same honest token, an honest leader cannot paint the world as “a fearful place with dangerous ne’er-do-wells lurking around every corner and waiting to cross some nation’s borders and wage the horrible terrorist strike on unsuspecting and innocent citizens.”
While it is a given that there are some nasty and dangerous criminals lurking in our world today, there are specific reasons and there are specific rationales that need to be factored into any scenario being portrayed by an honest leader. Cause and effect must be addressed by the true world class leader. The true world class leader would then have to acknowledge ’sins of the past’ and other mistakes that may have been made by the government of the true world class and honest leader. In some instances, reparations would then have to be made to those that had been egregiously harmed by our honest leader’s government. It could be a pure blessing for all inhabitants of our world to be able to see any politician confessing their governments sins and then making things right.
The true world class leader would have to have vision and the strength of character to will his vision into a reluctant and hesitant world. Considering how infrequently any politician displays strength of character, and you can see how a world’s population can be and is hesitant and reluctant. The world’s population is quite used to the politician that will dictate then enforce a politician’s iron will onto people. We all know how well that ploy works. The true world class leader can share his vision with a people and the strength of his character would be all the sales pitch that was necessary for his desire to become a shared goal.
The true world class leader does not see the world as black or white, us verses them, you are either with us or against us, my way is the only way, or any of a panoply of buzz phrases designed to sell a politician’s hysteria to the masses. Politicians are hysterical to the point of knee-jerk and they are reactionary. The politician’s hysteria is directly connected to the limitations of a politician’s intellect. Politicians are in general not the brightest bulbs in any light bulb display. Therefore the true world class leader is smart, brilliant, genius, equipped to think on his/her feet, and without arrogance. Real intellect is displayed with humility. The trait of humility is the very real selling point for any would be world class leader. The true world class leader is humble enough to know that the leader is after all, just people. Humility is approachable. Humility is kind. Humility is strength.
The true world class leader is unable to be purchased. Not by special interest, not by corporate interest, not by political parties, not by political movements of any persuasion, and the true world class leader is fully aware that the love of money is the root of all evil. This is the human trait known as, integrity. Integrity is the single most important of all the traits required of world class leaders and that is the truth. Integrity shines like the sun and people can see, feel it, and they can almost taste it. Integrity has the capacity to draw people in and hold them firmly. People can trust integrity.
Now I readily admit that this kind of “dream” leader is not likely to come along in my lifetime. It does however give the world something to think about and possibly want to have. It certainly gives the world a measure to hold against all of the politicians that are active in the stinky world of politics that holds are world in peril.
Use the integrity measure on say, George Bush. Nope, no integrity there.
How about Tony Blair? Nope, no integrity there.
How about Ariel Sharon? Hell no, there is no integrity there.
Yasser Arafat? Nope, no integrity there.
Iyad Allawi? Nope.
Grand Ayat Allah al-Sistani? Oh very much so. Here is a man that is the very definition of integrity. The Grand Ayat Allah al-Sistani will never disgrace himself with politics and that is too bad for all of us.
How about the Dalai Llama? Yes, here also is a man with integrity and he too eschews politics. I don’t really blame al-Sistani and His Holiness, I just wish that maybe one of them might reconsider.
How about Mr. Kofi Annan? Oh very yes, a man with integrity and keen political sense. ... Mr. Annan, are you looking for a new job?
© 2004, by the author.
What do you think?
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The true world class leader is unable to be purchased.
Not by special interest, not by corporate interest, not by political parties, not by political movements of any persuasion, and the true world class leader is fully aware that the love of money is the root of all evil.
This is the human trait known as, integrity.
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The true world class leader does not see the world as black or white, us verses them, you are either with us or against us, my way is the only way, or any of a panoply of buzz phrases designed to sell a politician’s hysteria to the masses.
Politicians are hysterical to the point of knee-jerk and they are reactionary.
The politician’s hysteria is directly connected to the limitations of a politician’s intellect.
Politicians are in general not the brightest bulbs in any light bulb display.
Therefore the true world class leader is smart, brilliant, genius, equipped to think on his/her feet, and without arrogance.
Real intellect is displayed with humility.
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