« Must Read Re:Eric Cantor, the GOP & strategy for 2010 | burtg's Blog | If you haven't read Peggy Noonan on Sarah Palin from today's WSJ, you need to »
"There is nothing more powerful than inspirational leadership that unleashes principled behavior for a great cause,"
Here's a short quote from a strong and timely piece by Tom Friedman in today's NYTimes:
"There is nothing more powerful than inspirational leadership that unleashes principled behavior for a great cause," said Dov Seidman, the C.E.O. of LRN, which helps companies build ethical cultures, and the author of the book "How." What makes a company or a government "sustainable," he added, is not when it adds more coercive rules and regulations to control behaviors. "It is when its employees or citizens are propelled by values and principles to do the right things, no matter how difficult the situation," said Seidman. "Laws tell you what you can do. Values inspire in you what you should do. It's a leader's job to inspire in us those values."
And here is a link to the full essay, which is, I think, a must read. I'm trying to feel and act optimistic but in my heart i believe that radical steps need to be taken and I wonder if anyone, anywhere has the heart and steel to tell the truth and do what needs to be done.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/opinion/22friedman.html?ref=opinion
Advertisement
What happens when different people in this country have different values?
What happens if there is a large group whose values suggest to do X and another large group that believes X is morally wrong and Y is the right answer?
March 22, 2009 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
It seems to me that that is the reason we hold elections.
It allows one to express an opinion on which candidate or party best represents the values that they want to guide the decisions made about their country.
It's then incumbent on the victor, and his/her party to govern in a manner that's consistent with the values they've previously supported.
And that's what I'm waiting for now.
March 22, 2009 9:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Way back when, Marcus Tullius Cicero had a comment on this in his treatise "On the Laws". In essence he says we all have the ability to reason ourselves into moral behavior. But we also have free will--we can deliberately choose not to behave ethically. Human laws exist primarily to control the behavior of those who know right from wrong and choose wrong out of self interest. Most of us behave correctly, day in and day out, without having a law book or a book of regulations stuck in our back pockets.
The problem for officialdom is to write good (in the ethical sense)rules. The more in accord with rational ethical principles the rule is, the less conscious of it we are--we behave in the way the rule commends us to behave, and would, even if it wasn't written down.
I've always wondered why the AIG folks could possibly not know that massive bonuses drawn from the public purse would be morally offensive to the vast majority of citizens.
March 23, 2009 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Nothing is more powerful...." except Wall Street Bond Traders.
"You mean to tell me that the success of the economic program and my re-election hinges on the Federal Reserve and a bunch of f#cking bond traders?" --Bill Clinton (Bob Woodward, "The Agenda")
March 23, 2009 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink