In the absence of true leaders

[Jaimie Richards]

Hey guys,

I guess it would be a good topic to discuss - do you have the same feeling that these days true leaders are as rare as snow in the summer? The more I think about people surrounding me, the more I realize that no matter how awesome or how not-awesome they are, true leaders are a truly rare thing.

No one wants to take responsibility, one of the common thoughts is "when did maturing started and how to stop it?", peeps blame each other for many things and lack the ability to take the blame or find the faults in themselves, just victim mentality everywhere... Almost nobody, even the strong ones, wants to rethink their lives and admit to making mistakes. Even with people who generally try to be (and most of the time are) leaders such things happen from time to time.

Is it me, some cognitive failure or am I right and leadership spirit has gone way downhill in recent times? Or has it always been like this?

What are your thoughts?

J.

 

[Chase]

Jaimie-

Thoughtful post.

I see markedly different attitudes toward leadership in different societies, and so far as I can tell it seems directly related to how hungry a given society is.

The thing to keep in mind here is that the West doesn’t want leaders right now. It wants babysitters / managers.

When a society is on the upswing, it wants powerful, forceful leaders, and rewards them with the power and privilege they require to take on a role as difficult as leading is.

However, once a society is satisfied with where it’s at, it yokes its leaders, removes most of the incentives of being a leader (e.g., lots of women, lots of money, lots of power, etc.), and replaces incentives with demands and requirements. That makes the ambitious men who seek power and want to effect change say “No thanks” and instead appeals to the types who don’t mind babysitting (or aren’t sharp enough to realize the position they’re taking no longer offers the same incentives it used to).

This is just another symptom of a safe and wealthy society. Not really anything you can do about it save wait for your society to face a legitimate threat to its supremacy (like the threat the U.S. faced in the U.S.S.R.), or flat out get surpassed and left in the dust by a hungrier people.

It's a society-wide phenomenon, and trickles down into all kinds of leadership roles: political, business, social, etc. Once a society becomes risk-averse, it yokes its leaders, which makes most men beg off pursuing a leadership role. i.e., in a young and vital society, going for a leadership role is how you elevate your status and earn wealth, women, recognition, etc. Meanwhile, in a mature and flagging society, a leadership role is an undesirable burden the savvy avoid and only the unaware pursue. Some interesting parallels with the fate of a mature company’s power structure as laid out in the Gervais principle.

Sad? Perhaps. Just part of the cyclical nature of human society and civilization, though, really.

Chase

 

[Drck]

I agree with you Jaimie, there are no longer true leaders. The difficulties arise in defining leader and leadership though...

For example, I believe that today's president Mr. O. is some sort of self-help/NLP/hypnosis raised leader who perhaps studied classical 'The Art of War' and follows its principles. He's got all the leadership characteristics, he is enthusiastic and very intelligent ideologist, he is a cool, honest and very popular guy, he's got great trained confidence - but I don't really think that he is a true leader. There is just something missing, some sort of a backbone... Compare to for example Putin in Russia (or GWB). Putin is "the man", true tough guy. Mr. O looks like a child in comparison to him. Even GWB which was not so popular like Mr. O was in my opinion true leader, true man, I could simply feel the backbone.

Or, future possible female president. I have nothing against females, I love women and I know they are very intelligent, they have lots of integrity and amazing social skills - but who wants to have female as a leader? I don't even understand that mentality. Maybe I am old fashioned but I would never vote for a female leader, no matter how big balls she's got. I want true fucking man as a leader, I don't want anymore pussies - I am honestly envious of Russian leader and I wish some true Man will emerge from the crowd of Americans and restore the world to the right track... And no, I don't mean Republican and/or conservative - I mean True and Independent MAN without any affiliation...

I think that we men became too feminized, we became too week and insecure, we worry too much about approval of others and especially of girls, we do too much to attract girls, we compromise too much to get girls... IMO it shouldn't be that way because WE don't really need girls, THEY need us, they need real men... Thus they should be seducing us, they should be polishing their PUA skills, and not the other way...

I want the girls asking themselves: What do I have to do to get THAT guy? How do I improve, how do I seduce HIM? What qualities do I have to develope so I can keep such guy?

Enough of Wussification of American Men!