Leadership Crisis

Leadership Crisis

The 21st century can win on many scores. Where it fails is in creating heroes who may last a century.

As you look back in history, heroes who may be remembered over generations - for their thoughts, skills, abilities or work - declines drastically since about the 1950s.

Yet the world believes that we are on the path of unforeseen advancement and evolution.

It does not take much to count: who are those world citizen between 1950 and 2012 whose names may live over generations.

Without going much in past, count then the people who lived between 1900 and 1950 who will be remembered for their genius across arts, sciences, politics, economics or for their social contributions.

I then question the path that may lead to the evolution of the world civilization, and what will the future generation see as the 22nd century.

Are we sitting pretty or we are so engaged in the dailies that we have discounted tomorrow?

Perhaps our daily chores have ridden much too high over the wish or the dream for tomorrow.

As technologies and scientific advancement makes fulfillment of needs real time, isn't it then obvious that tomorrow appears too distant.

Ha, someone may say tomorrow slips faster than the day gone by. 

Symbolically tomorrow represents in real in the current century a value chain that begins from what I can get and ends at what I have achieved so far, and in between the start and the end is a complex cycle of paradigms - alas yet in truth limited to personal accomplishments, personal gains, personal recognition and personal wealth.

In contrast if one observes closely the lives of people who made a change in a profession, service or the society or set a new direction in the life cycles of the arts, sciences or faculties they engaged in.

The shift appears to be in the vision for the career, profession or occupation one is engaged in. The heroes begin their journey from how I can take this vocation or faculty from where it exists in the world currently to a direction that may lead to its more evolved future. They fit themselves in that continuum. And make the whole world their scale of mission. 

Rest of the people around the world are more commonly engaged in seeking what they can get out of the vocation or faculty they are engaged in. In that process, some get recognized, some earn better, some generate more wealth. But none consciously or willingly stretches the canvass to its next level.

If the aspiration to stretch the canvass further exists - more often that aspiration gets postponed to tomorrow. Let me cut my task for the day, I will consider the aspiration tomorrow perhaps is a satisfying mindset. In a world of plenty the task for the day brings enough; as a result the tomorrow moves from the stage of postponement to an ever forgotten conclusion.

You cannot question that either on benchmarks of morality or another principle. Can you however deny its influence on the newer generation whose sights are limited before they ever open to a reality of an higher order.

The parents indulgently force the child into a regime of the daily chores, and does their academics programs or educational institutions, and further the world around them is crafted to keep them engaged in what they ought to do. And as the innocent ones chase to do and do, they never really pay attention to the mind of a higher vision or thoughts stimulating a greater mission.

Often we don't make a change reflecting upon the time, its time that sets several crises to put us right back in order. Why face such crises?