We see a great need for leaders in all areas of operation and of human knowledge, don’t we, Eugênia?
There is an extreme unpreparedness, on the part of younger communities, which preclude them from undertaking major roles in what concerns the responsibility with the common good. If we pay attention, we will notice, among those who are under 60 years of age, a strange prolonged and generalized childhood, as if we were seeing large bunches of foolish parents and grandparents. We say this regarding the emotional immaturity, never alluding to intellectual aspects, which, without a shadow of a doubt, have evolved greatly, in the popular masses, in the last decades.
What can this be attributed to?
This is due to a culture of conveniences. The era of television, of video games and of home computers (most recently) made this Western civilization a culture of grown children.
When you say “common good”…
I am referring to all kinds of leadership, including the ones found in the organizations aimed for profit. The business world and the job market as a whole are lacking professionals and leaders sufficiently skilled to conduct the human masses, in the sea of complexities and confusions of the contemporaneity.
And this capacitation concerns, especially, the psychological sphere — or moral sphere, as it would be better said. The ordinary citizen is too insecure and afraid. This reinforces the trend of the fact that the complications of modern life and their requests favor this state of mind. However, as you know, in times of crisis and enormous challenges great leadership figures often arise. Can you point out to me, a figure in any field, in the terrestrial humanity today?
There are small puppets and imitations of leaders, individuals of staged charisma, which does not sound genuine, because in fact it is not. Many study “marketing” and apply some tactics to improve their personal image and their power of persuading masses, but the true leadership is much greater and deeper than that: it has to do with the flame of the spirit…
We have, currently, stars and prominent figures in the media. I am not referring to fame. I speak of individuals who are sufficiently capable of generating movements around them, bright souls, in terms of personality, character and purposes. They create a model and a dream, an ideal and a prospective vision — for the suffering, disorientated masses, who are, above all, thirsty for a project of future in which they can believe and for which they can fight, work, and live for.
What you say is very strong, Eugênia…
We live, unfortunately, in an era of cynicism, hopelessness and generalized anxiety. Depression and panic attacks portray these dark days of torpor and collective horror. Terrorism, lastly, gives the final note of desperation that paints a grim picture of the current international situation.
What is the reason for this?
The loss of spiritual references. Men like Kennedy or Lincoln, Kubitschek or Gandhi were individuals who were sufficiently humanistic, or who based their ideals on religious principles that supported their projects of work, followed by millions. Without an ideal (and a sincere ideal), there cannot be dignified, nor can there be competent, or even coherent leadership…
And, then, what should we do or what should we expect?
New leaders will emerge, soon, renewing the panorama of human civilization.
Is this all you have to tell us?
It would be incorrect to anticipate any further information in this regard. Those involved should follow the propositions of their free will, and, if we detail information, we would be inducing people toward certain choices. These options of destiny must be entirely initiated by the leaders themselves; after all, to be a leader, essentially, is to be able to inflame crowds with a direction, a cause, a gigantic motive that involves everyone. Leaders who need direct provocations are not legitimate, because they lack the basic attribute that constitutes the nature of a conductor of collectivities: safe and resolute initiative, which, however, has nothing to do with arrogance or presumption.
And for all of those who read this, in the education of their children and of themselves, what should be done to counterbalance this modern tendency toward infantilization?
Break the widespread tendency to await excessive conveniences from life. In the era of the remote control and the Internet, where a world of possibilities seems to be within the reach of a few keystrokes to the computer, a tremendous and tragic illusion that goals can be easily achieved is created.
However, never before have the challenges been so complex and delicate, with such subtle nuances as it is today. To win on such intricate and difficult field such as leadership, it is essential: discipline, hard work, capability, willingness to self-sacrifice, as well as motivation for a sufficiently high and noble ideal, in order to make the greatest gestures of heroism to feel as if they were ordinary initiatives.
Besides that, it is also essential to have a lot of intellectual preparation, a lot of courage, a lot of resistance to pain, a lot of psychological maturity (to disregard attacks and slanders to one’s own name) and, finally, a lot of faith in God. I have just traced, within a few lines, some of the most difficult features to be gathered in a person, but which, when bundled only in a single creature, can make an individual a great leader. Who does not have, in oneself, sufficiently consolidated, such attributes, give up on exposing yourself to what you cannot endure or, worse: what you will do unduly and insufficiently.
Benjamin Teixeira de Aguiar,
in a dialogue with the Spirit Eugênia-Aspásia
September 11, 2006.