\u201cKinder, gentler\u201d American leaders\u2026\u00a0 Is that what we need more of?\u00a0 Do we need leaders who are just real thoughtful and ponderous, you know, consensus seekers leading from the middle?\u00a0 I guess the answer to that is, if we\u2019re happy with the overall direction of the leadership trends in America, YES!\u00a0 But if we look around and find that maybe we\u2019re not so satisfied with the politically-correct climate that seems to persist today then, well\u2026 maybe no.<\/p>\n
Friedman\u2019s observations that the \u201cmost dependent members of [our] organization (America) set the agendas and\u2026 adaptation is constantly toward weakness rather than strength\u201d1 articulated a nagging sense that I have been wrestling with for a long time.\u00a0 If no one differentiates him\/herself from the rest, the steady migration toward mediocrity as a society is inevitable.\u00a0 Weakness defines us rather than greatness.\u00a0 So how has this come to be the norm?\u00a0 How is it that we tend to pull over-achievers down a few clicks closer to the under-achievers in the name of \u201cfairness?\u201d<\/p>\n
I have often considered whether or not we, in the Christian community, have misappropriated meekness and humility in this regard.\u00a0 Because we \u201cought not think more highly of ourselves that we should\u201d and \u201cthere but for the grace of God go I\u2026\u201d we excuse-make for those who are living below their potential.\u00a0 The progression of thought goes something like this: “Well\u2026 we can\u2019t really blame that meth addicted loser who is turning over his 3rd\u00a0son\u00a0to the Department of Family and Children\u2019s Services for his condition because after all\u2026 there but for the grace of God go I\u2026”<\/em> \u00a0We\u2019re being empathetic right?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that a characteristic of a leader to be pursued?\u00a0 \u201cHowever lofty the original concept of empathy (a word that only came into the English language in 1922), societal regression has distorted it to the point at which it has become a power tool in the hands of the weak to sabotage the strong.\u201d2 \u00a0Then our misguided empathy drives us to create policy that is wrapped around the needs of the weak while demonizing those that buck the system and do well for themselves!\u00a0 It seems that this is the end result of group-think.\u00a0 Individuals that distinguish themselves from the crowd are shouted down and accused rather than celebrated and learned from.\u00a0 This is the social environment in which American leaders are expected to lead.<\/p>\n So, how can a leader be self-differentiated with being a jerk?\u00a0 Can he\/she be gracious, merciful, kind, a defender of the oppressed and downtrodden while still being willing to distinguish him\/herself from the rest by making decisive, principled decisions even without the support of a consensus?\u00a0 Can a leader REALLY be a leader or does he\/she have to be an organizer?\u00a0 I tend to agree with Friedman that if we are to survive this \u201cnationalized neurosis of anxiety\u201d3 we had better hope that more real leaders will emerge.\u00a0 Let\u2019s hope we don\u2019t allow a failure of nerve to mark our leadership.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cKinder, gentler\u201d American leaders\u2026\u00a0 Is that what we need more of?\u00a0 Do we need leaders who are just real thoughtful and ponderous, you know, consensus seekers leading from the middle?\u00a0 I guess the answer to that is, if we\u2019re happy with the overall direction of the leadership trends in America, YES!\u00a0 But if we look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[236],"class_list":["post-5756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-friedman","cohort-lgp5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5756"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6421,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5756\/revisions\/6421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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