Thread by @ThyConsigliori

#OurLeadershipCrisis – Essay 1 – 3 December 2019

If hashtags allowed apostrophes, I'd have chosen America's Leadership Crisis. While it is a global phenomenon, my focus in these essays will be America, and our failure of leadership. Let me turn to a couple of defining elements.

2) I imagine that for most, the moment they hear the two words 'American Leadership,' they instantly see us leading the free world, and where we do, fighting the enslaved world. This, however, is NOT the leadership crisis of which I speak.

3) Turning a bit more inward, we see a divided nation. While this too is not my focus, I'll speak to it a bit. No, this is NOT the most divided we have ever been. Did you know that it was Union soldiers who came up with the term "The War to Free the Slaves?"

4) Just one quote from Lincoln illuminates. He said something to the effect of, I'd end this war immediately, and allow slavery in the South, if they'd only rejoin the Union. Lincoln did not choose to fight a war for freedom from slavery. That happened, later.

5) In fairness, I have to guess that Lincoln believed that slavery would wind itself down as a non-viable economic entity, in that labor works best when free, not when enslaved. Freely paid, freely negotiated labor is more profitable than forced labor. I think he believed that.

6) Yet the Union soldiers came to believe that their war was the necessary cure against the greatest evil in the America of their day. Just good, common folk found in their American bones they hated slavery. Not that's a powerful story.

7) Yet, it was the war of brother against brother, and rent our nation from stem to stern. That was a moment of true division, costing an estimated 650,000 lives fighting ourselves in hot war, the hottest we've ever fought, far more so than any foreign venture.

8) And then there was our vaunted Revolution. It was no matter of unity. The numbers I've seen indicate we broke into three thirds: Revolutionaries, Loyalists, and the Oblivious. I've forgotten the number of Loyalists who migrated to Canada at the time. It wasn't just a few.

9) Returning then to today, our Union has great strength, in spite of the great divide we do suffer, and which by all measures appears to be growing deeper. I catch myself using terms, even in public, like the "Destructive Democrats." Maybe I should stop myself from such speak.

10) You may believe me when I tell you I have no fear of and take great joy in political battle. Yet, I do not wish to transcend politics and join in the battle to destroy our Union as a people, under the banner of our Constitutional Freedoms. It is indeed a conundrum for me.

11) Letting go there, I'll simply state that the leadership necessary to fight political battles while reuniting as a people of the Constitution is not something I see in place, here in America. Yet, I state again, that will not be my focus in these essays.

12) There's one more meaning I must mention but dismiss. This is actually closer to the heart of the crisis itself, as I see it, though. By leadership, I do not mean National leadership, as in our politicians, the media, or the other great centers of power. We'll explore this.

13) This form of leadership, at the National level, is what I term to be Top-Down leadership, or leadership from above. It doesn't have to be National; it can be demonstrated locally with ease as well. Here's one of my own most impassioned examples. Education.

14) A parent or a teacher comes to believe that the school is failing its student by this or that means and wishes to offer a solution for improvement. The principal, or the school board, above, must rightly approve or disapprove. But sometimes they do so for bad reasons.

15) It is here, precisely here, where the crisis of which I speak begins to show itself. Is there leadership from below? Obviously, I term this the bottom-up model of leadership. I'll come back to the school example in a moment, but first, what did Lincoln teach us about this?

16) The greatest phrase he ever coined - and that's a high standard - was without doubt the coinage: Government Of the People, By the People, and For the People. Of, by, and for. Who knew that prepositions could be some of the most stirring words in the entire English language?

17) The very history of America Herself, is that of bottom-up government. It was, and by far, the most revolutionary idea in the history of governance. Sure, we reach back to Ancient Greece and Rome for predecessors, but slavery was 100% inherent to their Democracies.

18) As we noted above, we faced that great divide ourselves. Did we mean what Jefferson wrote for us, that ALL men (and women, as we now believe) were created equal, and hold inalienable rights? We've made it passed those hurdles, and yet, where is today's bottom-up power?

19) Going back to school, it is the rare event where teachers and parents join forces and unite to speak to the powers that run the school. Teachers and parents have lost faith in their ability to affect the outcomes. They don't realize that by uniting they have power from below.

20) I might speculate as to the causes of the separation between teachers and parents, but the one clear winner in that separation is the power structure from above. Their jobs and perquisites remain intact, secure, unchallenged. They enjoy their power, safely ensconced.

21) In coming essays, we'll discuss the nature of the great battle between safety and risk, and how true leadership ALWAYS demands the sacrifice of safety, and ALWAYS demands that risk be embraced. The powers above seem to hold our safety in their hands, and the threat of danger.

22) Finally, here is what I AM talking about. The power of union, such as parents and teachers joining to improve local education, simply CANNOT occur without leadership to guide it into existence. We must begin with just one leader, but a leader from below.

23) Please note, this is NOT, it is ABSOLUTELY NOT leadership from behind. No, no. Leadership from below is precisely where the battle line is drawn, and that leader faces all the risk of being exactly on the front line, ready to take extraordinary incoming heat.

24) Is this a hero's story? Absolutely yes. Again, in future essays, we'll discuss the spiritual nature of the courage required to join the fight at such horrendous cost of risk and loss. I will tease you the following four spiritual terms, residing within each human heart.

25) Here they are. We all have our own inner:

1) Angels
2) Demons
3) Monsters, and
4) Giants

By the way, I pair Angels and Giants against our inner Demons and Monsters. But like I said, we'll discuss this simple-but-profound model in detail in future.

26) I can, however, use the model right now to express the crisis we face in America today, at the level of bottom-up leadership. The powers above are able to tap into our inner demons and nightmare fears of our monsters, and use them to denude us of our power.

27) Alright, you forced it out of me. My model is just a bit bigger, and actually has 6 parts, like so:

1) Hero
2) Villain
3) Angels
4) Demons
5) Monsters
6) Giants

28) This allows me to restate the crisis, like so: in today's America, I see the powers above as far too often giving themselves over to blatant villainy, and happily suppressing the powers of the heroes-in-waiting below them. They ride upon our backs ever so happily.

29) They are evilly empowered to do this by the fact that we have allowed our inner demons of fear, our terrors over the monsters of loss and defeat, and the lies of inner demons harassing us into the false belief that we cannot win. We below have given them above such access.

30) So yes indeed, this crisis may most readily be defined in these spiritual terms. To be a leader from below, you must be able to access your better angels and to task your inner giant to rise up and speak boldly, and to move across the lines of battle with confidence.

31) You must also learn to silence your demons of doubt, despair and visions of defeat. You must rise up barriers between your inner monsters and those who use evil power to access them, forcing your fear to conquer your courage, your silence to conquer your voice of action.

32) What courage might it take, at a school board meeting to stand and speak boldly. You are sacrificing our children. your sacred mission of education is not a platform for the school's power over our children. It's mission is to serve them, not control them. To empower them.

33) Yet there are those of you sitting the chairs of power right here, who enjoy vast power and rewards at our expense, and cost of our children's futures. And I, for one, will not sit down and be quiet about it. We need change, and we will have it.

34) Will such a leader from below face consequences for such bold aggression? You know he or she will. It is just such preparation of the soul that makes this such a spiritual battle. It is the lack of that strength that most defines today's leadership crisis.

35) In closing for today, it is time to conquer our fears and find our courage. But what about that word, "our?" If we find just one such soul, our victory has commenced. So, I say now, it is time - or, is it time? - for you to find your courage and overcome your fear. Just you.