A quick thought experiment: name a leader in a position of power you admire, trust and respect. Not just the head of an “alternative” company or political party, but a well-known , mainstream, orthodox, leader of the status quo.
Can you? Even after a few moments to reflect and consider, most people can’t name a single one. Obama? Bernanke? Cameron ? Blankfein? They’re hardly Churchill, Roosevelt, Lincoln , or even J P Morgan.
I’d like to advance a simple thesis: today’s leaders are failing on a grand, epic, global, historic scale — at precisely a time when leadership is sorely needed most. They’re failing me, everyone under the age of 35, and everyone worth less than about $50 million.
I can excuse leaders who are boring , mean, stingy, greedy, uninteresting , self-obsessed , vacuous and generally lame. I can even excuse lying, cheating and stealing. But I can’t excuse the fact that they’ve failed.
If I had five seconds with today’s so-called leaders, I’d simply , firmly, gently say (and I bet you would, too): you’ve failed to provide us opportunity.
You’ve failed to provide us security . You’ve failed to provide us liberty. You’ve failed to provide us dignity. You’ve failed to provide us prosperity. So: resign . Quit. Step aside…
While there are nuances and complications, it’s also true that today’s leaders can act, right now, right this second, in greater degree, with fiercer conviction, to make things not just marginally better — but dramatically so.
(Source: Extracts From “The Great Dereliction” by Mr. Umair Haque – The Economic Times dated 26-06-2013.)
