By Sarge
The art of leadership… consists in consolidating the attention of the people against a single adversary and taking care that nothing will split up that attention.
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but they are ravening wolves.
Conducting politics is similar to a vaudeville act in a desert. The implications can seem daunting. The stage is an expanse needing navigation skills unfamiliar to many finding themselves within its boundaries. There are vast expanses of land and horizon seemingly stretching into the infinite depths of time and space. What appears close may be deceptively far away. The nourishment necessary to survive must be carried with you and failure to control your vital resources can prove deadly.
The ground is unstable; shifting sands moving at the whim of winds and other influences most people don’t recognize or understand. One day your course seems right, the next day your landmarks are moved, or gone completely.
The shadows of dusk and the deepening night obscure the defining elements of the vista before us. The issue doesn’t change but the mists enfolding it, encompassing it, obscuring it make the decision process so much more difficult.
Which way do we go tomorrow?
The more defined an element is, the more readily the eye is attracted to it. It becomes a preeminent possibility to consider. The original problem or issue loses its position of importance. The clarity of truth is weakened in the haze.
Once, the issues seemed clear, then they’re muddied by the fluid eddies and eccentricities of political misdirection, drama and intrigue. This all happens according to the political aspirations and doctrine of the party in opposition to the one in power at the moment. The blurring of the boundaries, like the shifting sands, happens because the issues must be addressed according to what the party line dictates. The issues constitute a mirage; light bent to look material and having substance when it’s no more than illusion.
Pro-activity is a pursuit of the offender more often than not. It shows him as more agile at moving along the dunes of political action, his proactive trek allowing for his tracks to be erased by the controversy to follow, like sand shifting in the wind. The reactors in the issue can be lost. They sometimes must fire a “shot in the air” to gather the attention needed to accomplish whatever goal they see as theirs. It’s almost always describable as a knee jerk reaction because the offended party must respond in order to seem relevant in the negotiation.
But each party postures and dances in their personalized smoke obscured mirrors, trying to convince us the images we think we see are real.
One party points the finger at the other. Nobody sees what the other hand is doing. The political sleight of hand they’re known for tragically misdirects the public eye from the true chicanery conducted. Rabbits don’t jump from hats and ladies aren’t sawed in half but a Constitution has been nearly shredded and rights erode daily. What element of this illusion do you find least entertaining?
The people in power fan the smoke and tilt the mirrors. They complete their performances, keeping themselves center-stage while justice lays concealed in a trunk off-stage. When all is said and done, the final act played out and the curtains falls, preparations are made for the next performance. The vaudeville continues with generations old and new refining the acts and perfecting the writing of new playbills for the future.
The quotations at the beginning of this piece are important. One is quoted as the given word of God. The other is the rant of a madman. Both present a warning, one by metaphor- the other by its statement of direct action. The one about wolves in sheep’s clothing is from Matthew 7:15.
This hasn’t been an indictment of any particular leader but more about all those placing their ideology before the good of their people. The one about the art of leadership comes from Adolph Hitler in Mein Kampf in 1933.
Learn from them.
Thanks for listening
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