Dear Friends,
It seems to me, there are two kinds of respect, the respect you give a wise and learned man, and the respect you give a hornets nest. Our leaders, including judges, police and bureaucrats, seek the second type, the first is beyond them. Real authority comes from force of personality, leading by example and the virtue that is exposed thereby. False authority comes from the barrel of a gun. Not only are the actions of legitimate authorities done out of human heartedness, but they lead to better outcomes for everyone. Pragmatically then, we could reason that the outcome, describes the quality of the authority that created it. History tends to agree. Mao derived his authority from the end of a gun, and the results were crimes against humanity, mass famine and tyranny. Making Mao a vinegaroon.
One way you can tell which kind of respect an authority demands is by how they act. Do they deserve respect or do they demand it, at the point of a gun? Someone who leads by example provides the avatar of what he or she wants in others. They need not use violence or the threat of violence to get people to follow them. They provide the template for correct action. Leaders eat last while rulers eat first. Rulers however cannot allow people to follow them, because if all of society were as corrupt as they, it would quickly collapse, and what would they rule then? In total chaos, no one rules, else it wouldn’t be chaos. How few leaders we have today. It is the rare example of a leader in politics, the courts and the bureaucracy, they mostly seek compliance, not cooperation. We are starving for real leaders today.
Those that demand respect at the point of a gun, only deserve our utter, total and complete contempt. Certainly not a spec of respect. Using violence to get one’s way is the act of a villain. Do you laud a murderer, a rabid dog or a plague? Of course not… you avoid them. We laud heroes, leaders and the altruistic. No one has anything bad to say about a martyr. A villain, on the other hand, is someone we may not want to annoy, but is no one we respect as a human being. A villain is contemptuous… as is a virus, diseased animal or fiend. In this case we can say that both respect and contempt are earned. Respect by virtue and contempt by villainy. This applies not just to others but to us as well. When we use violence and the threat of violence to get our way, we are not leaders, but villains.
Power of personality requires, reciprocation, human heartedness and leading by example, things no despot is willing to do. Like the old saying, there are three kinds of people in the world, givers, takers and reciprocators. Givers are selfless leaders, takers are never leaders but reciprocators cannot help but be leaders. A giver will wear themselves out trying to help, a taker will take until there is nothing left to take, but a reciprocator will cause others to give, take and reciprocate. Everyone benefits, no one is crushed and no one burns themselves out. Human heartedness is merely humanity. The understanding we are all flawed people, no one is a saint, and most of us are just trying our best. Leading by example, from the front, is the only way we can really lead. Otherwise we are not leading but ruling.
Virtually all our leaders today are like a hornets nest, quick to anger, vicious in their attacks and mindless in their pursuit of power. It should be our top priority then, to find leaders, who are leaders, not would be despots, followers or takers. Part of being a good leader is the ability to delegate some authority to others. Choosing who we delegate it to though is the trick. The truth is, we are the leaders we search for, we need to speak up, stand and run for office. We need to lead by example, and deny authority to those who demand from others, that which they would never do. Our world, nation and children deserve no less. Be the leader you want, our nation needs and our culture hungers for, in private and public… and society will right itself. Earn real respect… and burn the hornets nest.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
