In Aristotilean terms, the good leader must have ethos, pathos and logos.
The ethos is the moral character, the source of his ability to persuade.
The pathos is the ability to touch feelings, to move people emotionally.
The logos has the ability to give solid reasons for an action, to move people intellectually. Mortimer Jerome Adler.
The ethos is the moral character, the source of his ability to persuade.
The pathos is the ability to touch feelings, to move people emotionally.
The logos has the ability to give solid reasons for an action, to move people intellectually. Mortimer Jerome Adler.
All week, I have been struck by the actions and words of our leaders, particularly in the political realm. I have been trying to understand what motivates them and why I have felt such disdain for the majority of them.........locally, nationally and internationally. So often, I find myself shaking my head, thinking "are these people in their right mind?"
It seems that there is a terrible imbalance between morality, pathos and actions. It seems to me that we the voters often get swept up by the emotionally driven words we hear our leaders spew, and vote them in hoping that there is the morality and action behind the feeling words. It's like a house of cards though isn't it? We get sucked in by the eloquence and then it's too late. We're stuck with a leader who obviously is feeding their own egos.........their own desire to stand up on top of the hill surrounded by adoration and false fawning, which continues to nurture their false integrity.
When things go wrong...........as in the Iraq war, there seems to be no one with a spine who will own up to it. All we are left with is the reassuring words of George Bush.....
"It's bad."
After I clutch my stomach and hold down the urge to vomit, all I can think of to reply is, "duh!"
As of this morning, I can't think of one example of a balanced effective leader. What do we do now? We voted these people in. How do we find our way out?
It seems that there is a terrible imbalance between morality, pathos and actions. It seems to me that we the voters often get swept up by the emotionally driven words we hear our leaders spew, and vote them in hoping that there is the morality and action behind the feeling words. It's like a house of cards though isn't it? We get sucked in by the eloquence and then it's too late. We're stuck with a leader who obviously is feeding their own egos.........their own desire to stand up on top of the hill surrounded by adoration and false fawning, which continues to nurture their false integrity.
When things go wrong...........as in the Iraq war, there seems to be no one with a spine who will own up to it. All we are left with is the reassuring words of George Bush.....
"It's bad."
After I clutch my stomach and hold down the urge to vomit, all I can think of to reply is, "duh!"
As of this morning, I can't think of one example of a balanced effective leader. What do we do now? We voted these people in. How do we find our way out?
5 comments:
Boy are you up early!!!
The last really great leader that I believe had all three of those qualities was JFK. When the CIA convinced JFK and RBK that it would be wise to rid themselves of Castro and that the best way to do that was to start a revolution in Cuba it turned out to be an ill-gotten venture. When many Cubans were killed, as well as a few American pilots, JFK admitted that it was a failure and did so publicly. He was not afraid to say that he made a mistake. He also discouraged the involvement of Americans in Vietnam once he determined that it was not going to get them anywhere. But as we all know they killed him off and went into Vietnam anyway. When RBK decided to run for President and won the Prelimenaries (can't spell this morning sorry) they were afraid again that those 3 elements may be, yet again, present in another leader...so they killed him too.
Maybe Canadian politicians are just too afraid to showcase all of those 3 elements of a good leader. Each one, Martin Luther King, Gandhi and many others that have those 3 elements are killed by those who don't have them. Or, which is most likely the case, our politicians don't cut the mustard.
Hi Sunny.
yeah, I'm an early riser.
I have to disagree with you. Who the heck knows about JFK anymore? He has been romanticized beyond recognition. Plus, his "warts" weren't identified while he was in office. The media worked very differently back then. so, when I look back on the so-called "camelot" years, I feel we look back on that time through a vaseline smeared window. He MAY have been great.
I don't know if the calibre of people striving for leadership in office or the motivation behind wanting to be elected has altered over the years, but it seems to me that most have this self-centred, self-absorbed urge to create their own "legacy".... Can building a legacy be considered a goal with integrity? No!
Legacies are the bi-product of morals and ethics....of visions and sound goals......of seeing leadership as a calling to be a guide and a visionary.
Our present day PM....? Well...what to say? His micro-managing and muffling of his caucus is for what?
I watched the Liberal Leadership convention last weekend....took in the majority of speeches and you know who had one of the best speeches....one of the most emotionally stirring? Jean Chretien!!! Our ex-PM who never made a decision if it didn't impact on his image, who lied and led a scandal and has never admitted any wrongdoing....who CHOKED A DEMONSTRATOR. And yet, he stirred up the masses and they all cheered madly.
Locally? Who do we have? We have a doofus city counsellor who makes big stinks about handicapped parking spots being used by able-bodied and then has a brain fart and parks in one outside of CITY HALL? We have a mayor who has been known to bum smokes off homeless people. TRUE!!
Today is the first anniversary for the Leader of Liberia....a woman (who's name escapes me right now and I don't have time to look it up.) You know what she has done? She managed to turn the lights on in her capital city.....for the first time since 1990. She delivered on her promise. I applaud her.
Ok......I felt guilty, and looked up the woman's name. The President of Liberia is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
You are right that the media was different back then and that we really do look back on that era with a different pair of glasses. I guess there may be the possibility that JFK wasn't as great as we thought but there must have been something about him that makes us want to hold onto him and the ideal that he represented. Can we say that about any of our past leaders? Probably not...Hell I can't even remember any really great Canadian politicians. Oh sure, lots of people talk about Pierre Trudeau as though he was the Canadian ideal but it's as you said...who knows anymore. Who knows what really happened behind closed doors.
No politician ever really wants to put themselves out there and make a decision. They are all yellow as far as I am concerned. It's like nobody wants to make waves and rock the boat. Canada has been sitting on still water for too long and it's time someone rocked the boat somewhere.
I love your political writing. This is an area that I find really interesting and love talking about although my interest has been mainly in American Politics and History I am sure that if I had someone (meaning you) to have a meaningful and intelligent political conversation with I may become more interested in what is going on in our country today.
Looking forward to a moment at Trinitea's and a little politalk.
Our local politicians are goofs! I forgot to mention that. The city counselor you mention is a complete waste of space...how many little public faux-pas has he been involved in in the last 6 months? Too many to count that's how many!!! I am surprised he hasn't been impeached yet.
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