Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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leadership in <strong>the</strong> long emergency S 107<br />
actions. It is fi rst and foremost about direction, and only secondarily<br />
about <strong>the</strong> “framing” <strong>of</strong> issues. True leaders do not rely on<br />
what has lately been called “spin” or manipulation as much as<br />
on truth telling and <strong>the</strong> arts <strong>of</strong> rational argument expressed with<br />
eloquence and passion. Real leaders help o<strong>the</strong>rs see <strong>the</strong> <strong>to</strong>pography<br />
<strong>of</strong> his<strong>to</strong>ry through <strong>the</strong> fog <strong>of</strong> events and crises. Real leaders<br />
energize people <strong>to</strong> act better than <strong>the</strong>y o<strong>the</strong>rwise would. Some<br />
are charismatic visionaries, but more <strong>of</strong>ten <strong>the</strong>y are ra<strong>the</strong>r ordinary<br />
persons, blessed with a capacity <strong>to</strong> ask good questions, see<br />
patterns, notice when <strong>the</strong> emperor is naked, and act while o<strong>the</strong>rs<br />
sit quietly. As Robert Coles and Garry Wills, among o<strong>the</strong>rs,<br />
note, leadership comes in a variety <strong>of</strong> forms and scales, in many<br />
areas <strong>of</strong> life. And, <strong>of</strong> course, his<strong>to</strong>ry, including our own, is full <strong>of</strong><br />
examples <strong>of</strong> people in positions <strong>of</strong> potential leadership who led in<br />
<strong>the</strong> wrong direction, for which we are paying a high price.<br />
Many people dismiss leadership as mostly pathological and<br />
increasingly irrelevant. The real driver <strong>of</strong> progressive social change<br />
supposedly comes from <strong>the</strong> bot<strong>to</strong>m <strong>of</strong> society and works upward.<br />
They envision a networked world in which electronic spontaneity<br />
and <strong>the</strong> basic wisdom <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> human heart displace <strong>the</strong> need<br />
for leaders at all. Something is astir in <strong>the</strong> world, abetted by <strong>the</strong><br />
ease <strong>of</strong> e-mail, <strong>the</strong> Internet, and cell phones. Whe<strong>the</strong>r this will<br />
amount <strong>to</strong> much I cannot say. Social movements fail as <strong>of</strong>ten as<br />
not because <strong>the</strong>ir goals are inchoate, <strong>the</strong>y work at cross-purposes,<br />
or <strong>the</strong>y fall victim <strong>to</strong> one human fault or ano<strong>the</strong>r, or because<br />
circumstances and <strong>the</strong> tide <strong>of</strong> his<strong>to</strong>ry work against <strong>the</strong>m. The<br />
Populist movement in <strong>the</strong> late 19th century, for example, had a<br />
great deal going for it, but it failed in large part because <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
power <strong>of</strong> capital and because rural populists and <strong>the</strong> urban labor<br />
movement could not come <strong>to</strong>ge<strong>the</strong>r around a common agenda.<br />
Similarly, what is presumed <strong>to</strong> be a rising tide <strong>of</strong> contemporary<br />
social movements has yet <strong>to</strong> show that it has enough common<br />
purpose, unity, and vitality <strong>to</strong> cause change <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> right sort in<br />
<strong>the</strong> time available.