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THE ROLE OF AN AMERICAN LEADER |
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Written by Dr. Joel Wade
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Friday, 26 March 2010 |
To be a political leader in America
involves a unique role that is different from political leadership in any other
country in the world. Not just because we are big and strong, but because of why we exist.
America is
unique in the history of the world in terms of our purpose. America's
purpose is philosophical, spiritual, and, at the same time, supremely
practical. America's
purpose is to protect, nurture, and grow individual human liberty.
Anyone can be president, or a senator or congressman. But to be an American
leader, to be a leader of the exceptional creation that is America,
is to be true to America's
purpose. America's
purpose - and therefore a central duty for any American leader who upholds his
or her oath to defend the Constitution
of the United States - is to champion the individual's
ability to say "no."
And to say yes, of course. But giving consent implies the absence of force
and the need to persuade. Without the ability to say no, any choice is made
under duress.
This unique role of an American leader presents a problem for any would-be
dictator in America,
because an American leader, by virtue of his or her allegiance to our
Constitution, is fundamentally anti-authoritarian.
It's not that we don't respect authority in America;
we have a great tradition of honoring those who have earned our respect. But
the authority that we respect and honor is a gift that we give to our leaders
on loan. An American leader is not a king, or an emperor, or a lord.
An American leader is a custodian who has earned our approval enough to hold
an office for a time, to fulfill a role in our larger purpose: to remind our
citizens of their right, and their responsibility, to say "no" to abusive authority.
The role of an American leader to set an example of defiance toward ill-used
authority is a supremely practical role that is necessary for not only a free
society, but a more broadly humane society as well.
A little known finding in the Obedience
to Authority experiments of Stanley Milgram shows the unique role that an
American leader has to play.
In these experiments, a subject would enter a room in which an authority
figure wearing an official white lab coat would instruct him to administer a
shock to a person (the "testee") in the next room, whenever the testee answered
a question incorrectly. The subject - the one giving the shock - had no idea that
the testee - the one to be shocked - was in on the experiment, and was just
acting. There was no actual shock.
The subject thought that he was just there to assist the experimenter, but he
was the one who was actually being studied. In front of him was a panel of
switches marked with increasing voltage from 15 to 450 volts. Toward the upper
range of voltage the switchboard was marked, "Danger, severe shock," and then,
past that, an ominous "XXX."
Whenever the subject would look to the authority figure, or question what he
was supposed to do, the authority simply answered, "The experiment requires
that you continue."
As the subject administered the shocks, the pretend testee from the other
room expressed pain, pleaded to be released, screamed, and then finally yelled
loudly that he had heart pains. Once they reached 330 volts, there was just
silence.
Any humane, rational person reading this would think that they, personally,
would never go along with such directions; and that maybe a few weaker souls
might go along with what they were told to do, but most people would simply
say, "No."
But that's not how it went. Fully 65% of
subjects continued on through the full range of shocks - through all of the testee's
expressions of pain, the screams, and the ominous silence.
Sort of horrifying, isn't it?
But for anybody concerned with human liberty, here's the crucial piece of
information:
When one subject witnessed another subject refuse to continue, only 10% of these subjects would follow
the commands of the authority.
The effect of seeing another person resist the pull of authority is huge.
When one person witnesses another person defy ill-used authority, he or she is then
two and a half times more likely to
defy that ill-used authority than if they had not witnessed that defiance.
The unique role of an American leader, beyond all of the normal duties of
any leader, is to set this particular example:
to remind us of our right and our responsibility to say "no" to abusive
authority - by the very government which that leader represents.
This role is unique to an American leader not because of something in the
water, or some genetic characteristic of our people, but because of the
practical idealism enshrined in our Declaration of Independence and our
Constitution. America
is a society which, from our founding principles, encourages individuals to say
"no" to our own government.
When Ronald Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate and demanded, "Mr. Gorbachev,
tear down this wall!" he was not just defying the folks in his State Department
who thought that such words would be too incendiary; he was setting an example
for the American people to remember who
we are, and what we stand for. He was reminding us, and declaring anew to
the world, the meaning of America.
And he was reminding the world - and in particular the people within the Soviet
Union and the Eastern Block - of the great hope and goodness that
is possible through our example.
The leaders to whom we have granted temporary roles in our governance today
are not fulfilling their roles as
American leaders. When President Obama bows to an Emperor or a Sheik, he is not
just showing some kind of strange and creepy etiquette towards them; he is
demonstrating capitulation to an authority.
When Nancy Pelosi does everything in her power to squeeze through the
present sweeping government takeover of our health care by a couple of votes,
with no popular mandate, no consent from a single member of the opposing party,
and with condescension toward all opposition, she is showing us all that it is
futile to defy her will.
When our politicians - including our president - smear those of us who
oppose expanding government power as "teabaggers," "racists," and "nutcases," those
leaders are telling us, as Milgram's authority figure told his troubled
subjects: "The experiment requires that you continue."
It is time for all of us in America
who value liberty, humanity, and our philosophical, spiritual, and supremely
practical ideals to become American leaders, in whatever capacity we can.
But we also need strong people who understand the role of an American leader
to boldly and competently seek our consent to hold the offices of our government.
We need more American leaders to take on stewardship of America's
purpose.
We need leaders to whom we can give our consent to be governed; and who can
remind us of who we are. We are the people who are not ruled. We are the people
to whom our elected officials look to, not for our submission, but for our permission.
We are the people who, when authority steps across the limits of our
Constitution and our conscience, have the right, and the duty, to say with the
firmness and confidence of our 234 year history as free American people: "No. I
will not comply."
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