The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt- Betrand Russell
I by no means hate the fellow, I simply feel he does not operate from a loving, accessible place I can identify with.I cannot wholly fathom Stephen Harper's motivations
"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
- Albert Einstein
But I perpetually have the thought that people just resolve to care little because fundamentalists care so much. I mean, we don't have a perfect solution--and neither do they-- but they just care so dang much. "I'll give 'em a freebe, I suppose."
So I got to thinking: Is confidence and pushiness the key to Leadership?? Really?
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(to clarify, I don't think Stephen Harper is stupid. I, infact, think he is smart enough to take advantage of the apathy of a privileged nation on the edge of innovation too lazy to digest, take responsibility and take action in a complicated context. I think that we elected him twice: is stupid.)
Stephen Harper pretends to give us what never was and never will be:
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816. ME 14:384
("Convinced that the people are the only safe depositories of their own liberty, and that they are not safe unless enlightened to a certain degree, I have looked on our present state of liberty as a short-lived possession unless the mass of the people could be informed to a certain degree." --Thomas Jefferson to Littleton Waller Tazewell, 1805.)
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
Nietzsche
The more kids I work with I realize the connotation of "leaders" and why kids frown upon keeners. Power breeds hypocrisy & lack of self-reflection in conjunction with the harsh judgement of others. Kids do not like the people who are invested in telling them what to do and seem so sure of themselves and wholly unwilling to really listen or accept criticism... but at the same time they don't want to be associated with those types of people, those 'leaders' or deal with the responsibility of power. Therefore they don't want contest these people: to offer up or lobby for any alternative solutions in part because they value the opinions of others and assume someone else can do it better. Plus, what is the worst that could happen? What could be the possible consequences of this laziness? If I have been thinking this, surely someone else has too...
Is this the downfall of democracy? People silently believing the same thing and being spectators to authority?Being a leader, and having to perpetually negotiate your own image...having people who don't even know you being unloving critics and uncritical lovers.
It misplaces those community moral checks we are used to, puts us in a place most find uncomfortable.
Not many covet the position of Prime Minister or President, really. But do we think they are champions of all? Do we think they have all the answers? We act like we believe they have more agency, a more important voice than 'us': The majority, the democracy, the whole.
"At bottom, every man knows perfectly well that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time."
- Nietzsche
We are afraid of our own dreams. Of being held accountable for the world which we dreamed up--as if not following through on your dreams and passions made your influence on the planet inert.
"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night."
- Edgar Allan Poe
I think this is all great news.... the new leaders (it seems) are the most reluctant to lead. I find that comforting: a good sign of integrity, even. And knowing this, I feel I can still believe in the visions I hold for Canada and her people.
"The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second."-John Stienbeck
Dreamers and artists and teachers will soon hold their new place in a deeper democracy. Where (hopefully) leaders are role models too.
"I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit."
- John Steinbeck
Be the change you want to see in the world. -Gandhi
Feeling a little unsure? Not sure you have the right answer?
You are probably on the right track.
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