Leaders or Drivers?

Column for week of May 12, 2014                              

     Often I hear the lament that we don't have leaders today. 
What is a leader?  What distinguishes a leader from the herd?

     Those who follow a leader do so because they want to. 
They believe they will benefit from following and supporting the
leader.

     When a rancher wants to move a herd of cattle he doesn't
hire leaders, he hires drivers.  The drivers will coerce the cattle
to go where the cattle may not want to go.  The cattle go where
the drivers want to avoid the unpleasantness threatened by the
drivers.

     Sometimes drivers resort to another tactic.  They might
string a trail of food to where they want the herd.  The cattle
may go for the short term benefit of following the food, even
though they end up in pens at the slaughter house.

     We don't have leaders in government for one simple
reason.  Government doesn't lead, it drives.  Government tries to
herd people to where it wants them.  An honest leader must
consider what the would be followers want and make a credible
offer to get them where they want to go.  Leadership is possible
only where the would be followers are free to reject the goals of
the wannabe leader.

     Those in government today have accumulated so much
power  they feel no need to lead.  The first response is to drive. 
"There ought to be a law" is the cry of the driver.  Translated it
means "I don't care where you want to go, I'll hurt you if you
don't go where I want you."

     The drivers also often string a trail of crumbs to the
holding pens.  Many voters with their noses to the ground
lapping up the crumbs don't see, or even seem to care, where
they will end up.  All they want is more crumbs.

     Big, all powerful government will never produce real
leaders, only drivers.  Leadership is possible only when people
are free to refuse to follow.  Those who resort to the government
tactic of  "Do it my way, or I will hurt you," will never be
leaders.  They tell people what they should want and attempt to
drive them to it.

     They may at times claim to be concerned about what
people want.  As soon as the pretend leaders grasp the power to
drive, they drop all pretense of leadership and crack the whip.

     If this country is to survive, we must quit looking to "Do
it my way, or I will hurt you" government for our salvation. 
Instead we must look to the private sector and voluntary
cooperation.  Leaders earn their stripes and stars.  They don't
take them by force.

     Individuals will work hard for a leader who holds out
hope of leading them to their goals.  They only stagger along
when driven.  Of course, when followers discover a leader is
deceiving them, they will abandon him.

     This freedom of choice gives rise to spontaneous order
where everyone seeks to serve others in order to get others to
serve them.  The successful leaders are the ones who lead people
to where they want to go.  The leader doesn't set the goals, he
only, executes a plan to achieve the goals.

     A leader may persuade individuals to change their goals.
The choice to change is freely made by the followers because
they believe the new goals serve them better, and will be more
satisfying than the old ones.

     The force of government drivers can only bring division,
strife and poverty.  What happened in the former Soviet Union is
the ultimate end that all government drivers will achieve.

     Only in the seemingly chaotic spontaneous order
produced in an environment of freedom and choice can we
achieve and maintain peace and prosperity.  Looking for
government and its drives to force us to peace and prosperity is
as hopeless and looking for orchids in a snowdrift.  We must
have leaders, not drivers.

aldmccallum@gmail.com
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Copyright 2014
Albert D. McCallum