Your Silence is Your Leadership
I spend a lot of time talking about values. Up until now, for me, the idea of integrity has been neatly summed up by the CS Lewis quote:
“Integrity is doing the right thing - even when no-one is looking.”
I still think that’s valid - but I no longer think it’s enough. It needs an addition:
Integrity is doing the right thing - especially when people are looking.
For too long, I’ve been too quiet - silent, even - about some of the things I care about most. So, in no particular order, here are a few things I hold to be true:
- Genocide is evil. There are at least three going on right now, and that is just wrong.
- Infinite growth is not possible on a finite planet. The continued pursuit of economic growth is a denial of physical reality.
- The endless accumulation of capital is not worthy, or good, or useful. It is greed.
- Our political system has been bought by lobbyists. We need to get money out of politics.
- Social media is net-negative for society - and AI is potentially catastrophic for us all. They need regulating, now. [But - see point 4].
- We live in a vastly unequal world. That is simply not fair.
- A great way to counteract all of these is to build stronger relationships - with ourselves, the people around us, the wider world, and with ‘something bigger’, whatever that might mean for each of us.
I’ve struggled for a while now with the concept of ‘leadership’. As I look around, I see few examples of what I would consider good leadership - and plenty of examples of bloody terrible leadership.
Maybe the whole concept of ‘leadership’ is the problem? The idea that one person’s views and opinions are more important than anyone else’s [which is ironic, given that I’ve just offered a list of my opinions].
Whatever it means, I’m pretty confident that ‘leadership’ is not staying silent in the face of injustice.
My list above is simplistic - perhaps overly so, to the point of being offensive.
But it’s what I believe.
“Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
— Elie Wiesel