Where have all the leaders gone? The reasons are many but there are three that come readily to my mind.
Perspective
Let me set the stage for what follows by stating what distresses me most about America. In simple terms, we have lost our way as a nation and as a culture. Why we have done so is a question for the ages and for history yet to be written. That history can only be understood with the clarity of hindsight, written at least 50 years after the fact.
Whatever the cause or causes, we will require exceptional leadership to return America and the world to some sense of normalcy. Let me explain what I mean by exceptional leadership in this instance.
Exceptional leadership, in my opinion, comprises three elements. The first element requires a foundation of absolute integrity for that leadership. Integrity is doing what is right based on first principles.
The second is an understanding of what a just, ordered, and free society means and how such a society can be best organized, nourished, and sustained.
The third element is the recognition that freedom—true individual freedom—is the force of nature that drives civilization and culture forward and upward in a positive direction
Three Reasons That Come To Mind
Here are three reasons that present themselves to me regarding the leadership vacuum. There are probably a host of others, but these three seem to be of great consequence.
First, we have lost a sense and understanding of history. Very few of our current leaders, if any, have any knowledge and understanding of the history of the world and its many cultures and civilizations. George Santayana was correct when he wrote the following: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Second, the absolute debasing of America’s educational system, for example, and the ever-increasing emphasis on the STEM curriculum in the world at large. The liberal arts curriculum was the core foundation of education in the Western world for centuries and it provided a foundation for a classical liberal education. Sadly, it has been displaced by various studies programs and the many cultural memes of woke universities.
Third, and finally, we have lost integrity in human relations and governance as implied previously. Integrity has been displaced by a perverse maxim that translates as follows: “When you are up, pull up the rope, and the devil take the hindmost.”
Closing Comments
Civilization and all great cultures in our world, whether Western or Eastern, are extraordinarily fragile systems that can only be governed by an educated and enlightened citizenry. We seem to have lost that wisdom.
Let us hope that future generations can regain that lost wisdom and right our ship of state and the rest of the world.
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Cordially,
Andrew J Guinosso
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