I don’t know if success in the business community can translate into success in the political system since the situations are totally different. Either way, the OP was about leadership to make meaningful change while Musk does, but he doesn’t have the ability to truly reform the economy.
To the OP, have you read anything about the Strauss-Howe generational theory?
According to them the millennial generation (roughly b1978-2000) will reform the political, civil and economic system. If the theory is true, the millennials are just entering civic and business life.
Hadn’t heard about this. In general, I am not too swayed by “it happens regularly every XYZ years!” kinda deals, but who knows. Thanks for the info though!
It certainly wasn’t great leadership getting into that mess. But most leaders are reactive, because when things don’t go wrong it is harder to demonstrate great leadership. Lincoln reacted to a war he didn’t start, and Churchill reacted to a crisis he predicted but which happened anyway. And when a large part of the Republican party wanted the country to go into the dumpster, even with a Republican president, it is not surprising that the problems haven’t been fixed. That usually happens too. Churchill got booted the moment the war was won, after all.
Wow. “I’m more embittered than you.”
Every time I listen to President Obama speak, he strikes me as reasonable, thoughtful, well-spoken and intelligent. Looks to me like he spent a huge amount of political capital on getting a good first stab at ensuring health care for all US citizens in place. This has gone no little way toward making the US no longer be the laughingstock of the developed world by reason of not providing health coverage for its people.
Seems to me he regularly consults with other “leaders” around the world to address situations as they arise. I don’t know what definition of “leader” you are going by or how you expect them to look concurrently. Take Lincoln. He was regularly pilloried in the press of the times for being a tyrant, suspending liberties, habeus corpus, etc. It is no accident that John Wilkes Booth shouted “sic semper tyrannus” after assassinating him. (On iphone -hard to check the exact quote. I think I got the gist of it.)
I think President Obama is an excellent leader and I am glad and proud that he has been elected twice. This is not something I can say about the previous two-term president.
Can the OP perhaps explain what great leadership was present in other eras, say the Middle Ages or 19th Century America, or whatever you like to demonstrate this is a unique low in leadership?
That might also help to understand how you define leadership.
I was about 15 when I came to the gut realization that I was probably smarter than most of the people who were in charge of things. I’d had the idea before, but that was when I really got it on an emotional level. That was terrifying considering that I knew I had next to no idea what the hell I was doing.
Unfortunately, nothing that has happened in the intervening time has convinced me that my epiphany was incorrect. I’m still an intelligent dipshit, and any success I’ve garnered is due more to luck than anything. I still see everyone making the same mistakes in cycles. No one learns from history, no one plans for the future. By some miracle we haven’t blown ourselves up yet, but it’s probably only because no one wants to take the blame, or because no one is competent enough to actually make it happen.
I’m not a complete pessimist, but people in the aggregate behave very poorly. Individuals and small groups focused on a common goal can accomplish great things. But when the group gets too large, things start to break down. No matter what lofty goals or guiding ideals, inevitably inertia and entropy take hold and piss all that creative energy into the void.
So, no, I don’t believe anyone in a position of power really has any idea what they’re doing. Some may think they do, but more often than not that belief is based on poor assessment of their own abilities and selective thinking about their successes. There are a very small number of people like Warren Buffet who have demonstrated objectively that they understand enough of the system to consistently succeed, but outside of those individuals — who are almost never leaders or in a position of any decision-making power — I don’t think anyone is even close to having their shit together. And hell, Warren Buffet has said that his success is due to simplifying things as much as possible, looking at long-term goals, and being willing to fail from time to time.