Sol 3: A woeful lack of superbeings

Sol, of which we are the third planet ...
ftp://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/pub/images/sun/sun0315.gif

The enormous stresses of being a leader of the free and not so free world could only be withstood by a superbeing. There are none; not on this planet and no amount of mass longing for someone to take charge, do something, succeed, pull us out of this mess, and generally be our mother/fairy godmother/saviour is going to produce one. The mass longing needs to change to mature adult self responsibility and to move on from childish expectation for someone else to ‘make it better’.

Observe the encroaching greyness of Gordon Brown which is engulfing his hair and features at an increasing rate of knots. This is a common phenomenon amongst those who aspire to, or achieve prominence in political leadership. Barak has been reported as now having some grey hair that was absent prior to the USA presidential campaign; Clinton too began to exhibit a little bit of strain while McCain became so waxen it looked as though he’d fade out before the end.

We unappreciative, demanding populace appear to take this toll on those who put themselves forward for leadership. But no one ever forced those people to stick their names on ballot papers, and although I am not so familiar with the demeanour of despots and dictators, it may be that not having to pander to an electorate is less devastating to one’s looks. Concern for politicians looks is not, needless to say, a plea for totalitarianism.

Power-sharing might be more sensible. The Greens have co-leaders, a woman and a male sharing the top post. This rational idea should, in theory, spread some of the burden, but instead, it is misunderstood and complaints are frequently voiced about it not being clear who to communicate with, or that it cannot possibly work. It seems that the patriarchal ethos can only cope with one leader. Those, whose critical thinking skills are otherwise functional, often stop short of understanding the usefulness of joint leadership.

In the seventies, women’s groups chose a model of collective decision-making to demonstrate their practice of power-sharing. This differentiation from patriarchal leadership styles gave power to those who had never experienced it. Many women soared and grew into themselves and their abilities, while others could not make the break from either trying to seize power over the group or simply failing to relate to this level of responsibility and democracy.

The major criticism of collective decision-making is the time it takes to reach consensus. This is judged as a negative, but in fact, it slows things down which I now think is what is needed in a society that makes too many changes too frequently. Imagine coherent and timely discussion of actions that will have long lasting effect and the time to ponder all aspects without pressure before taking decisions. Ah, well, probably not in this solar system and not at this time.