Where Have all the Leaders Gone (Excerpt)

[boombala]

By Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney

Borders - Feature - Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

"Light a fire" is RIGHT ON!

 

[Minor Axis]

Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course.

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

Holy shit! I think I love Lee. Now lets just wait for someone to call him a deluded uneducated communist.

 

[Tim]

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.
On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day—and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero.
That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq—a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.

:clap

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?

:clap

 

[ssl]

For a measly $25 dollars, you can get the whole book!

Please, if this guy was serious, he would not sit on his ass and write on paper about it; he would do something.

He is simply taking a situation and milking it.

 

[Tim]

For a measly $25 dollars, you can get the whole book!

Please, if this guy was serious, he would not sit on his ass and write on paper about it; he would do something.

He is simply taking a situation and milking it.

Actually he is taking a very active role at age 82 in what he says. Just because the article doesn't focus on his activism, that doesn't mean it's not happening.

The Iacocca Foundation


I don't think you can call this man all talk...

 

[Obdurate]

While I do agree we all have to live what we preach even just a little bit, talking is doing something. We can't do anything as individuals. We have to unite and organize. That's what talk is for. We can't just mobilize right now and expect any sustainable change to come about.

 

[Minor Axis]

He is simply taking a situation and milking it.

Hey, you should apply to Fox News for a job...

 

[BadBoy@TheWheel]

Basically I think the only thing that will turn this country around is to get a blue collar D.C.

These pasty old cigar smoking backslapping elitists don't have a fucking clue what makes this coountry tick.

I don't agree with a lot of what Lee did to the Chrysler company back then, but he did do something, he took action and he was swift and direct.

CEO's now, they just shuffle, shut down assets and run off will multi million dollar severance packages.

 

[Carthage]

THE INDIVIDUALIST MANIFESTO

We can't do anything as individuals. We have to unite and organize.

This belief is the cause of almost every problem the world has ever faced. If individuals are not able to do anything, how on earth is a united group of mindless zombies going to get anything done? Organizations, united fronts, groups, collectives, they're all just representations and supporters of the individual minds that have come up with an answer. Without the individuals that are leading it - I repeat, the INDIVIDUALS - then all we have is a united organization of mindless zombies who somehow expect the very existence of a united organization to be able to solve a problem, that there is absolutely no thought required to it. Organize! Unite! Collectivize! We see where collectivization has gotten us in the past - why on earth do you think it will help today?
"But he/I (probably) just meant that we should all organize and pitch ideas to each other to..." NO. Saying we can't do anything as individuals means also that we can't think as individuals. The problem with this is that there is only - ONLY - the individual mind, there is no such thing as a collective mind! How many times does this statement have to be explained fore people to understand it - THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A COLLECTIVE MIND, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A COLLECTIVE MIND, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A COLLECTIVE MIND!!!!!!!!!!!! Any sort of collective that has ever existed, any union or organization, has just be a large groups of INDIVIDUAL minds, and they are usually headed by a small group of INDIVIDUALS who are seen as the leaders because they either came up with the best ideas - INDIVIDUALLY - or because they are the ones best at thinking the problems through and using their individual minds to lead the organization/union/collective/group.
The answer is not to become more organized and unified, but to become more individualistic. We HAVE to start thinking for ourselves, using logic and reason to reach the answers independently. We have to start coming up with solutions without the help of others - we can all unite behind an idea, but only if it is a good one and we have used our individual minds to agree with and that we individually support, not support just because everyone else is up supporting it. Individualism is dying - real individualism is dying, it's being replaced with statements like "we can't do anything as individuals" or fashionable non-conformists - the biggest cheats, frauds, traitors, and conformists to ever walk the face of the earth. The only solution to the problems of the world is to INDIVIDUALIZE.
Collectives of the world, Disband!
Individuals of the world, declare your independence!

 

[Obdurate]

You thought your Ayn Rand influenced opinion was important enough to post in two places? I'll just keep my main responses in the thread, thanks.

 

[Carthage]

You thought your Ayn Rand influenced opinion was important enough to post in two places? I'll just keep my main responses in the thread, thanks.

I figured, it's a different topic, and it's bound to ignite some debate, so I thought another thread would be more suitable.

 

[Minor Axis]

Collectives of the world, Disband!
Individuals of the world, declare your independence!

I have no idea how you reached this conclusion (is it yours or Ayn's?) because in the real world, while yes, we are led by the leaders, most people have to agree with their leaders to make it work, and important things in society are ONLY accomplished by organization, especially not by a call for total individualism.