We Need Leaders, Not Politicians

Of Leaders and Politicians

A Politician tells the people what they want to hear.  A Leader tells the people what they ought to hear.

A Politician’s focus is on his career.  A Leader’s focus is on the Happiness of the people.

Leader’s lead — they speak to truth and goodness, summoning the resources to back them.  Politicians are lead — the masses and the money direct the Politician’s speech.

We have many Politicians, but only once in a while, a Leader emerges.  Why?

Depth Versus Breadth

There is a fundamental relationship between depth and breadth.  More depth means less breadth and vice versa.

If we consider the number of people in the general population that have a certain level of knowledge of economics, an emotional quotient to delay gratification for a greater reward later, and the expertise to cut through bullshit rhetoric, that number decreases as these skills increase.

That’s why it is far more difficult to be a Leader than a Politician.  A Politician can pander the greater breadth by promising immediate rewards and using logically ill-founded but psychologically powerful rhetoric.  A Leader will appeal to the tip of the pyramid and have fewer, but “deeper” votes.

Politicians often underestimate the power of deeper votes.  On paper, 1 million votes looks a lot better than 200,000 votes.  But deep votes have a power that is not seen in the polls.  It is those deep votes that will campaign for you, volunteer their time, will be the most informed and most zealous.  Deep votes take longer to mature, but when they do, they explode and overpower the shallow votes.

Jesus was an example of such a leader.  Even if you don’t believe in Jesus in the Christian sense, or even believe he existed, his story is one of overturning the status quo by speaking Truth.

Gandhi is another example.  You don’t get followers to do acts of mass civil disobedience at the risk of their life with shallow promises — you have to speak Truth that touches their hearts.

A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him. — Napolean Bonaparte

In recent US politics, Ralph Nader, with his background in consumer advocacy, always spoke the truth and urged people to do the right thing.  His message didn’t have widespread appeal, due to the breadth/depth pyramid, but his influence is important nonetheless.

This is why the 2012 US presidential elections are so exciting.  We have another Leader Ron Paul running for president, and this time, it looks like those deep votes are starting to explode — he is actually a serious contender.  Like Nader, he tells the people what is good for them rather than what they want to hear.  He’s in it to help the people, not himself (As a demonstration of this, he has announced that he will not be taking his congressional pension).  He accepts backing from people who believe in his message, rather than changing his message to attract more backing.  Most importantly, he says shit that makes sense.

Nader’s a Democrat, and Paul is a Republican.  But the distinction between Democrat and Republican is akin to the distinction between 2 sports teams.  The real distinction we need to look at is between Leaders and Politicians.

A Leader brings people together instead of vilifying the other side.  Ron Paul is probably the one Leader who has the most following from “the other side”.  In fact, there is a movement for Democrats to register as Republicans just to vote for him!  Deep votes.

It’s not enough to say “Vote Ron Paul”

PEOPLE NEED TO SWITCH PARTIES 12 WEEKS IN ADVANCE OF THE PRIMARIES IN MOST STATES.

IF YOU DO NOT SWITCH IN TIME YOU CANNOT VOTE IN PRIMARY.

IF YOU ARE NOT REGISTERED REPUBLICAN YOU CANNOT VOTE IN PRIMARY.

IF RON PAUL DOES NOT WIN PRIMARY, NO GENERAL ELECTION ! REGISTER AS A REPUBLICAN. FIND OUT WHEN YOUR STATE HAS PRIMARIES. Go to this link, FIND OUT WHERE, MAIL YOUR REGISTRATION AND VOTE!

WE NEED EVERY LAST VOTE ! Copy and paste this everywhere. — YouTube meme.

Who Cares About the US?

What if I’m not a US citizen?  Why should I care about foreign politics?

Nobody is on an island of their own.  The decisions of one country, especially one as big and powerful as the US, affect us all.

Let’s take the US’s friendly neighbour for example.  The attitude of the general population towards drugs, especially marijuana is much more relaxed and closer to Europe.  But Canada can’t politically act on those attitudes because Canada is the US’s economic bitch.  When 80% of Canada’s exports go to the US, you can be assured that any pro drug policies will have economic retribution à la tariff your face (I really hope you get the pun).

Ron Paul, while he doesn’t approve of drugs (although I would love to smoke up with him), makes the sensible call that the drug war is stupid.  Again, he’s saying what’s right at the risk of appearing “pro drug”.

Switching from bongs to bombs, a war mongering president will cost thousands of lives in global imperialization.

Ron Paul has repeatedly and consistently voted against imperialism.

Ask What You Can Do For Your Country

We want Leaders, not Politicians.  But this doesn’t mean the Leader will single handedly fix everything for us.  Remember those deep votes?  The power of leadership is that it inspires other leaders.  At every level in the pyramid, there are Leaders leading those below.  That’s right.  We’re all Leaders.  If we want our Politicians to act like Leaders, then we must do the same.