Monday, February 14, 2011

Leadership; A necessary Evil

God created man to lead not to be led

When God created man and woman, he gave them a dominion over all the creation with a command to “multiply fill the earth and overcome it”. As such then, man was designed to lead. Not to be led. The fall however caused an unfortunate turn of events. Man constituted to have fellowship with God found himself expelled from God. This was a great disillusionment for he had to device a way of surviving outside the providing hand of God. The result; the defacing of the perfect order to the deteriorated condition, and all the pain that accompany vanity, estrangement, alienation and a reactive painfulness to this awkward state of affairs. The searing of clear conscience to the deposition of decadence and evil. In this state man reacts with warlike tendencies, rapine, desire to harm and revenge the awfulness that he feels. I have always noted that sometimes an aggressive behavior is a product of unfulfilled needs. But the more the pain and reactive tendencies the more no answer seems to come. Cain for instance killed Abel; it solved nothing, the pain multiplied.

Utopian believe;all progressive philosophies

I would imagine that in a perfect world, God would be the father of us all; love would naturally flow from our hearts towards all other people. Nothing would have to kill another for food for God would provide for us all it would be a perfect order as described in Isaiah 65:17-25. There are reasons to believe that this is a possibility for somehow humanity seems to have this sense of utopian believe. That there is a perfect life somehow hidden from us and all progressive philosophies give this hope of once attaining this state through various paths. Whether through self mortification as the orient religions advocate for or joining in the government of God as Christianity and all Abrahamic religions believe. That our common humanity shares in this believe leads to our common creator’s signature inspiring in us this sense of hope that things don’t have to be as bad as they are and that we can hope that one day they will turn for good.

Depraved philosophies

Depraved philosophies however point us to absolute nothingness. For instance in Stoicism Zeno suggested that virtue and happiness can be attained only by submission to destiny and natural law. While Hedonism the doctrine that pursuit of pleasure is the highest good which you and I know it isn’t. Platonic philosophy advances that to be perfect is to be free from physical desire. Epictetus’ ethical ideal is a cynic philosopher, naked, penniless, wifeless, childless, without want or desire, without passion or temper, kindly, independent, contented, imperturbable, looking serenely or indifferently at life and death. Diogenes lived in a tub, and sought with a lantern in daylight for "a man," yet Christ who, had nowhere to lay his head went about doing good to men. All these are an attempt to guide the soul of man from this awkward emptiness to a sense of hope and meaning in life now and thereafter.

Government an alternative to secure survival

In all this then man now increasing in number had to have a system in place to secure his survival. With the cruel murder of Abel by Cain and the resultant curse on Cain, which was a byproduct of the man’s rebellion to God’s government, an alternative had to be put in place. Law came into place, it was to give guidance on how to act considerately towards other s and impose pain if a deviation is done. Law is a force that comes to compel men to do by force that which should have emanated from them from free will and clear conscience.

Leadership;A necessary Evil

Then there arose a need to have Leadership as a way to safeguard adherence to this law and ensure harmony. Leadership is a necessary evil, a product of the fall which led to people being disorganized and so a need for order. Leadership from confusion and selfishness, a capacity to harm another for selfish gain. It came from of the fall. The bible records the first government to be organized by Nimrod in Gen 10:8-12. He did it by force he was authoritarian. Government is an organized order put in place by men for the benefit of all. This should be the theoretical position. However the fall resulted in human corruption so deep that everything noble can be twisted for ignoble ends. It is for this reason that in an attempt to returning to some order man has tried various forms of government. Dictatorship, Democracy Capitalist, Communist, Socialist, Totalitarian, Monarchical, Parliamentary, Anarchy, Oligarchcal/ Plutocracy etc. In all these man has since Nimrod tried to rule another and all along the wilderness that is humanity souls have conceived these ideas and tried to run with them but to no avail. To this we have Gandhi’s idea of anarchist society, Marx’s idea of communism.

God created a human being to rule not to be ruled

Strictly speaking God created a human being not to be ruled but to rule. He is ruled because of the fall. Because a human being should ideally not be ruled then, any attempts to rule men should therefore be done with their consent. And so of all governments devised by men, democracy stands better than many. Personally I believe anarchy is the best.

Imperfections of democracy

Though democracy is the closest to the ideal, democracy pure is however not practicable for it degenerates into elective autocracy while the media can influence people so that they don’t practice what their conscience dictates but what is forced down their throats by the media. Whatever forms of government however the governing should hold the principle of fallen man true to them so they wouldn’t mercilessly govern God’s people or they wouldn’t trample on their inalienable rights. For whatever engagement that man has here on earth should lead to finding God’s grace enabling man to revert to his original plan of fellowship with God and so slowly a hope for a restored dignity and order, reasonableness and reparation that is the message of Christianity. It should usher us into his eternal kingdom. That is where true liberty is found; in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Leadership properly is God given

Leadership properly is God given grace to enable someone live an exemplary life (a life that leans to our common expectations of what is good and fine qualities imbued in us by God) that others aspire to emulate him/her or are just inspired to travel our original path that God expected us to travel. God can afford us grace enough to be able to have a positional leadership but the most legitimate leadership is born out of lifestyle that comes close to the ideal.

Man always looks for direction

For man always looks for someone for direction, inspiration, emulate or even approval. Someone will want to check and confirm that he is not in a world of his own. This makes us all want to learn as much as we can. Education itself is the process of acquiring all the necessary knowledge stored up in the society and letting it inform you in your thoughts, actions and beliefs. It is built on the maxim that history (experience) is the best teacher.