So yesterday, in my despair over the upcoming elections, I wrote that I should like to see the country elect the leader the country needs, not the leader we keep being told that we need (by those running). It should only seem fair, I suppose, to elucidate what that leader would look like - or more precisely, what their character qualities would need to be to be such a leader:
1) Servanthood - The leader would need to have the mindset of a servant. They need to act and demonstrate they the office is not something they are seeking because it is "due" them or because it will help their image (business or otherwise), but rather that they are there to truly work on behalf of the country, not themselves or their own agenda.
2) Truth - The leader would need to be a person of truth - not on as practiced in their lives but demonstrated in their speaking and acting. No shading of the truth, no sidesteps to the right or left, no dissembling, no flat out false denials. If they did it, they own it. If something needs to be said that might be perceived as painful, they say it.
3) Respecter of Laws - The leader would need to have complete and dedication to the laws (in our case, that is the Constitution). They have such a respect for the laws that they do nothing to break them or try to find ways to work around them. If they wish for a change, they make it within the system.
4) Responsible - The leader would need to be responsible: fiscally responsible, personally responsible, and corporately responsible. Actions taken under their administration are owned by them, not by a convenient scapegoat. A very, very basic level of fiscal responsibility understands that you cannot spend more than you take in (so spend less or take in more - your choice, of course, but you cannot pretend neither is an option.
5) Lover of Freedom - The leader would need to understand and promote that the purpose of the state is to promote as much freedom as possible to its citizens, not circumscribe it as much as possible. If you choose to do business with some and not others, that is your choice (the market should ultimately decide if this is a good thing, not the government). If you choose to "light up" or ride without a helmet it is your right - but along with your freedom, you own the consequences. The nation is not going to keep stepping in to preserve you from the consequences of your actions.
You will notice what is not on the list, of course: previously holding administrative, knowledge of specific areas, even (I suppose) a high level of moral rectitude. Perhaps I do not list them because we seem to have all of these in our leaders now and yet they have failed spectacularly.
Who would this person be? I truly have no idea. Those who possess such qualities are not the sort, it seems, that seek office. And yet they seem very much to be the very sorts of people that we need at this very desperate hour.
Perhaps, like Aragorn of The Lord of The Rings they are out there in the wilderness of our modern world in the shadows and wilds, patiently serving those who do not know they are there, waiting for the time to take up their birthright. If so, the time to arise is now.
It would appear that corporations and not politicians are 'ruling the roost' TB it would take a strong man indeed to turn the tide....
ReplyDelete"Hear me, people: We have now to deal with another race- small and feeble when our fathers first met them, but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possession is a disease with them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not. They take their tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule.".....Chief Sitting Bull
Your thinking mirrors mine John, especially brought on by visiting the realm of the Sioux when we went to Montana. It strikes me as odd that we rightly decry the destruction of a culture, yet those in power are now doing exactly the same sort of thing.
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