In my fantasies, I sometimes think of a single world, in which all nations , beliefs, and other large groups would cooperate to the benefit of all. Unfortunately, this is probably not going to happen in my life time, or the near future, without the threat of major damage to the human race (wreckage from climate change, massive over population, nuclear warfare, wide spread starvation or plague, potential impact with another extra terrestrial body, attack by the as yet unknown population of another planet, etc.). Hopefully it will not happen.
So we will continue to live in tribes, although they will be huge ones, not sharing the same beliefs and customs, and not restricted to a single plot of land. We will continue to need/want power and leadership for two reasons: they assure stability and the necessary collaboration to accomplish great things (if we cooperate), and it feels good to have power and we like both to lead and be lead (assuming we respect and admire the leader).
It would take a great deal of creativity to reach my fantasy world, and universal agreement and willingness to have, agree upon, and happily live within the agreed upon rules. But it has happened in small countries (Singapore) and temporarily in large ones (The U.S., Britain, and France after World War II). There is a good bit of this in the Scandinavian countries, Australia and New Zealand, and many other countries, usually smaller ones. But in the world in general there is widespread discontent, much of it focused on leaders and their use of power.
In my perfect world, there would be a perfect leader (which I don’ t think exists, although Churchill seemed to be pretty good in World War II, and Mandela seemed to be pretty good in South Africa). She/he would be likable,without strong political biases, and a combination wise person, model for the rest of us and firm final word. He/she would be rewarded by doing their job well, and managing and rewarding the people who reported to them (rewards in the form of satisfaction in successfully doing an appreciated and valuable job). Using the U.S. as a potential model, this leader (president) would also manage the vice president, and the heads of the cabinet bureaus who would do top level planning and policy. They would not always agree with the president, and would represent points of view of diverse groups of people in the country. The president should be smart, but not think he/she has all the answers.
Cabinet leaders would be professionals, in that they would have spent a number of years in the area of responsibility of the bureaus they headed., As an example, I agree that the Secretary of Defense should be a civilian, but I think it also preferable that he/she have spent a number of years on active duty in the military, and hopefully been exposed to combat. These would be the people in charge of developing policy and strategy, with the help of the people reporting to them, who would in turn have experience in the area they were working in and not always agree with their boss or the President or Vice President.
Obviously I am looking for creativity here. The bureau heads should be creative and in turn encourage creativity among their people. I think that we are going to be looking at a good bit of change in the next 50 or 100 years, and time tested approaches to solving problems will no longer work. It will be a period requiring experimenting, open minds, willingness to learn new information and approaches, and yes—creativity at all levels, reviewed by all involved,
This is a dream, of course, of a government for which I would love to work. But long term survival can not be built on the past, and a single person (president), cannot be expected to come up with solutions to the increasingly complex and multi disciplinary problems that will exist, and in fact already are here.
I think the above description of a hierarchy applies in any field involving a large population of humans, If you would like more of my thoughts on individual, group and organizational creativity, read my Conceptual Blockbusting book, and think about how it might apply to the leaders of your country or the Catholic church.
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