We are living through volatile times
We are living through volatile times. I could list off the names of current global and political so-called leaders who are manifesting the antithesis of true leadership, but I won’t.
The list would be too long. The debate would be too divisive. The discussion would be too defensive and too aggressive; too exhausting and too futile. The range of opinions would be too extreme, too indignant, too disrespectful; neither side seeing the view from the other side. Each side, unyielding in the belief that they are right while the other is wrong.
In fact, I should probably give credit where credit is due. This condition of division has enabled our so-called leaders to rise to their giddy heights. We now fight each other on their behalf. We now carry out their dirty work for them. They have used the age old tactic of divide and conquer. And we have followed like docile sheep. We are either ‘left’ sheep or ‘right’ sheep. We are divided and we are conquered. The centre is no longer holding.
We are living in a leadership vacuum
We are living in a leadership vacuum. Where are the inspirational and aspirational leaders amongst us? Where are the leaders who will represent the plebeians – we the people? Where are the leaders who understand that what their people want most is to live in peaceful and healthy communities; where we can live our best lives in homes where we feel safe and nurtured, warm and dry and sheltered from the storms of life; where we are not afraid of out-of-control crime and violence; where we are not hungry or worrying about where the next meal is coming from; and where we are not living under the threat of war. We are devoid of that kind of leadership.
We are living in a time of extremes
We are living in a time of great extremes, and the stretch is so taut that the centre has frayed and is reaching snapping point. It feels as though we are precariously perched on the edge of a precipice of significant change. It is from this perspective that I was reminded of this Lion King quote in a Substack article this morning.
“Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. While others search for what they can take, a true king searches for what he can give.”
– Mufasa, The Lion King.
I am not advocating for a king. Goodness knows we have enough false kings in charge at the moment. Instead, I am looking at the qualities we might admire in our leaders, and it struck me that this is how we might recognise wise leadership: It looks more like ‘giving’ and it looks less like ‘taking’.
What we see now are global political leaders intent on taking. And taking away. Taking away land. Taking away lives. Taking away livelihoods. Taking away families. Taking away communities. Taking away generational homes. Taking away peace and security. Taking away the delicate balance in which everything harmoniously exists.
The Baby Boomer generation of world leaders have spectacularly failed us.
The bitter irony is that the more these authoritarian leaders and oligarchs attempt to maintain a vicelike grip on power and control at all costs; the quicker they are hastening their own descent and demise instead. The tragedy is that they are dragging all of us down with them into chaos and anarchy. The poet William Butler Yeats said it best…
The Second Coming (By William Butler Yeats)
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
My hope and prayer for the future is that a new kind of wisdom leadership will emerge from the pride of the next generation. May these young lions bring wise leadership practices, in their words and in their deeds. May these sage servant leaders proliferate amongst our communities to ensure our world, our global home, is a better place for all of us.
© Gaynor Clarke, June 2025
Gaynor Clarke
B.Ed (Teaching), Cert Tertiary Teaching, PGDip Ed, MEd Leadership
Reach. Teach. Lead.
Reach Education Ltd
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