The Leaders of Today…what makes a great leader?

by David E. Hopper

Special Note: It is not my intention or policy to use specific names of personalities in this article or others in this web-blog, rather I want to put out ideas and seed the mental clouds of possibility.

We live in the presence of great leaders, i.e. the teachings of or the writings about Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Thomas Aquinas, Jefferson, Lincoln, John Adams, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, St. Theresa of Avila, Adlai Stevenson, John Kennedy, Thomas Mann….well, you get the message. These people and thousands more with equally great stature throughout the ages are all living in our hearts and minds when we read about them, invoke their wisdom, remember what they said and what they stood for. When we learn from the things they espoused or the values that were important to them and compare them with issues of today, we take them on as our own. Their values continue to live. Therefore, they are still alive in our hearts and minds – and our thoughts and feelings.

So how can we take the values of the Greats of yesterday (or even today) and apply their ideas and wisdom on the leadership of today? What is the function of leadership in today’s democracy and developing world? These are complicated and loaded questions. Answers, I would say depend on the field you speak of in which they work. If you’re talking about a local community leader, then he or she is usually valued by what they contribute to the local area. Speaking of nationally elected officials, then you must ask, “are they representing the best for the nation?” Looking at our national leaders, they are not measuring up to the high standards and values of a Jefferson, Confucius or a Socrates. Considering the state or condition of our country at the local, state and national level, our leadership is definitely not inspired. Indeed, they are strongly influenced by self-interest, materialistic concerns and not truly representing the people they were elected to serve. Indeed, they are even perpetuating lies and falsehoods about affairs of state and misleading the public on most issues so they the “representatives” can maintain their hold on power and maintain the status quo. Finally, they are severely lacking in long range vision, which is critical for defining a living and healthy society into the future.

First, I want to point out, that it is not my intention to provide yet another bashing of the current or previous administrations leaders. There’s plenty of press on this already it generates great polarity. Also, I am not going to list any specific names for leaders I would select for directing us. What I want to say simply is that our nation (virtually all nations) is being led by people that are very short sited, and are not looking out for the environment and future generations. It’s a challenge when a congressperson or senator hears from their constituency be it private or corporate interest, that “I want this project or pet idea to go forward in my local district”. So the congressperson or senator weighs his or her options and determines whether this person is influential in his community and probably most importantly how much money will he or she contribute to my reelection campaign or political party. This in my mind is corruption because a public official, elected with the public trust and indeed public monies (campaign financed) is being influenced by a monied interests, which is most of the time not in the best interests of the community or nation. In my mind, a great leader is somebody that sees the current problem and goes for a solution, with the least amount of friction and is not swayed by corporate or monied interests because its in the best interest of all concerned to remedy the situation.

Regarding long range issues and ideas, a great leader will not only see the problem before it takes shape, such as environmental problems but will air a long range vision that truly helps to fix the problem sometime in the future. The oil crisis of the 1970’s is a good example where it was seen and determined to be a major issue of the time. We had a major opportunity to remedy and strongly curtail a problem (i.e. the need oil) but it was not acted upon because of the transportation industry (oil, car, truck and train manufacturers) were so influential at the time and indeed we still are maintaining an oil based economy. Indeed, the oil crisis issue was so important as to be made part of our national interest. This gave the political leaders of the United States the moral, political and military justification to do whatever is necessary to enforce our right to get oil from the Middle East and keep our economy dependent on oil.

Often, the mark of the great leader is that he or she is merely pointing out what the problem is and how it should be solved, clearly and succinctly. Unfortunately, when a person is running for office in today’s world, the public is so numbed to what is important for the future, and there are so many crises in all areas of society, that the politician is addressing only what’s in front them and what the public wants to hear. especially when he or she is a candidate running for office. I found the following comment from Paul Street (another person with an opinion on the Internet), which in my mind sums up some serious flaws in our democracy.

“We should continue to work for critical democratic transformation in the candidate selection and policy processes and the national communications regime. Such changes include public financing of campaigns, proportional representation, and Instant Runoff in presidential elections, and the break-up of the insidious corporate media monopoly. They would help bring America's party and policy systems and the nation's visible opinion and commentary into proper alignment with popular sentiment on vital matters of issues of domestic and global policy. At the same time, remembering that it takes two parties to make the US into a one-party state, we must challenge the Democrats to either pull themselves out of their imperial corporatist lethargy or get out of the way to make room for others who will take up the peoples' fight against the arrogant masters of the in-power right. “ Paul Street

I strongly agree that campaign finance reform needs to occur in the highest levels of our government. We must keep monied / corporate / lobbyist’s interests at bay, who are representing their own selfish interests and not the public’s. Also, since the 1990’s, the conservative right in the form of the Republican Party have largely dominated politics from City Councils to President. I will not side with either the Democrats or Republicans because I believe both parties are way off the mark and leading us down a political and economic road to suicide. Both parties are involved in extremely foul activities which are not in the best interests of the nation and indeed the world. We simply new a new direction.

However, here in the early part of the 21st century, problems abound from every quarter. Local issues are important and need to be addressed but a major thrust of this website is that we are so short in time, that national and international issues must immediately take precedence and be addressed, otherwise the world of tomorrow will be bleak for future generations not to mention the various kingdoms which also have a right to be considered and defended. Since we are considering leaders that have vision and courage to face up to those who want to maintain the status quo, their challenges are numerous, such as:

Defending the air, the water (rivers, oceans and lakes) and the land against all who would rape the land in favor of profit and while not considering the environmental damage in present and for future time.

This is also a major consideration of all the ecosystems and species that inhabitant these spaces.

Address the issues of consumerism: This is a very complicated problem that touches on the government, educational institutions and media spreading the concept that progress is inseparably linked with buying things and wanting more. Consumerism started back in the 1950’s but really took off in the 60’s with advertising and re-identifying the average person as “consumers” instead of people. This is the notion of the ever expanding economy is a good thing and must be allowed to flourish at **ALL** costs. This of course takes its toll on humanity in the form of environmental degradation, by raping the land to capture its resources for short term profit to causing people to focus on making money at the cost of their humanity. This misguided focus leads to the mental and emotional stress that “I never have enough money for the things I want” mentality. In my mind, this is more a psychological issue than anything else. It literally speaks to our desires, e.g. impulse buying gone awry. In another way, the problem of consumerism also touches on population issues in the country and local communities. With more and more children being born, there are more demands on the infrastructure, the agricultural personnel and acreage necessary to feed them and for industry to employ them. But with strong need for more food because of more people are being born in America, the multinationals go outside the borders to the Amazon rainforest, for example to plow the land for cattle can roam the land for a relatively short time (1-3 years) then more land needs to be plowed. This land is precious rainforest that will never grow back again. The destruction of ecosystems there and the removal of trees, which produces carbon dioxide is critical for humans to survive. the need and drive to create more products to consume, not to mention the educational and medical needs of simply more people. I advocate a 1 child per household globally for a full generation until the planet can stabilize from the excessive demands put on it.

Education is necessary by our government and media by responsible leaders to talk about “what are our priorities?….do we really need to keep putting hundreds of billions of dollars into the military an take away monies form social services?” I will address these issues under the Social and Education headings. Acknowledged that the UN is an imperfect entity, but it all we have currently: Empower the Security Council, and the UN General Assembly to have the power to be able to negotiate an end to **ALL** hostilities around the world through diplomatic means and keeping meddling nations out, such as those who have an economic interest above the social and political needs of the warring nations. This includes nations like the United States, China, Russia, Great Britain, France, etc. who are major arms dealers and profit from the implements of war. The sale of weaponry abroad MUST END NOW if we are able to create a peaceful world.

Confront the issues of poverty, hunger, bigotry, hate, and prejudice that KEEP US AT WAR with each other. We can spend hundreds of billions of dollars on making war and maintaining the climate of separation but we spend hardly anything by comparison on creating the scenario of peace. I will address these issues under the Social heading.

Redefine educational priorities. In today’s world, and for a number of generations, the focus of our education has been to prepare the person for getting a profession and becoming a good consumer. This short sited mentality, has led to stress and tensions to the extreme, such as forgetting that we are born first and foremost human beings. I have no problem with the child being raised with learning primary academics, but learning to become a human being and a citizen who can **give** to society and the environment because of a grateful heart should be our first priority. With this orientation and understanding, our world will be transformed from bigotry, prejudice, mistrust and separatism to inclusion, tolerance, goodwill and understanding.

If we are ever to have peace in our world, we must have leaders that are **publicly oriented in that direction**. This means, on the national and international scene, these leaders will go to all lengths to use diplomatic means for solving issues and not relying on the newest “shock and awe” weaponry of the Pentagon and supplying war plans or even the mentality that says “shoot first then ask questions later”.

Dr. Louise Diamond (http://www.thepeacecompany.com), said:

“Peace is more than the absence of war. It is an active presence in society of a way of life that honors life. We need leaders who will address the root causes of terrorism, injustice, and oppression - not their symptoms. We need leaders who will put our prodigious resources toward establishing the conditions for peace, at home and abroad. We need leaders who are willing to take responsibility for our own actions, before pointing the blame at others.”