Predatory Leadership

Welcome

Israeli/Hamas Battle: The Wrong People Are Running The Show

The Israeli and Palestinian public do not want the war that is currently raging in Gaza. The battles only exist because those who have the power to stop the fighting are making decisions that provoke greater enmity and serve to further entrench themselves more deeply in their positions.

There are Palestinians and Israelies who are good friends. Some have married. Certainly these relationships have been strained, some have certainly ended as loved ones around them are killed and maimed. These are the fruits of rule by the abusive and sociopathic personalities who have succeeded in working their way into positions of power and control in their relative communities. This is the price we pay as peaceful people when we stand by as more aggressive personalities fight and manipulate their way into rulership.

As human beings, we need to expose the nature of those who profess to fight on our behalf when we never asked for fighting in the first place. As much as highly visible Arabs refer to decades of precedent to justify their hatred for Israel, and just as much as militant Israelis refer to decades of Arab atrocities to justify such actions as building more settlements in Palestinian territory, and destroying the infrastructure of Palestine as a means of protecting Israel, the (mostly) men making these decisions are not solving or reducing the tensions; they are entrenching failure which ensures them permanent employment.

Predatory Leadership and Louis Pasteur – What is The Connection?

Lack of awareness of the global impact of predatory leaders today is akin to the lack of understanding of the causes of disease prior the research and discoveries of Pasteur, Lister and Koch. Until then, doctors knew nothing about bacteria, virus and other invisible agents; they had no idea that these microscopic agents existed or were the source of many of the deadliest diseases affecting humans.

Along the line of thinking that the high offices of government and corporate leadership harbor a major source of humanity’s problems, prior to Pasteur, hospitals and doctors themselves were great sources of disease. There were many theories about the causes of disease – primordial beliefs that illness was caused by any number of causes: supernatural forces, Greek & Roman explanations of the humours of the body, Egyptian theories about the channels of the body, spontaneous generation, and so on. The most effective descriptions and treatments of illness by doctors and researchers came from logical deductions based on observations and intuitive guesses. From ancient times through the 18th century, no significant progress was made in understanding and effectively responding to the causes of disease.

The Industrial Revolution spawned a massive migration of rural populations seeking work in the major cities of 19th century Europe. The resultant crowding of humanity into tight, unsanitary quarters resulted in public health problems on a scale never before experienced. Plagues of influenza, typhus and cholera in the 1800’s killed hundreds of thousands of people; doctors struggled to keep up without knowing the causes of the diseases. While some researchers such as John Snow and Edwin Chadwick were able to show links between cholera outbreaks and unclean drinking water, they did not have scientific proof to support their theories. That lack of proof was sufficient to allow government officials to deny public health measures that could have saved millions of lives. Surgeons continued to work on patient after patient without washing their hands, spreading disease as effectively as a wind spreads a wild fire. To make any progress in reducing the murderous rate of death caused by hospital workers and the conditions in hospitals, the field of medicine needed a complete reconstruction.

After Pasteur discovered microbes and showed the connection between bacillus and disease, medical researchers developed new tools and techniques that transformed both their macro and micro perceptions and abilities in the world of health. As a result they were able to greatly reduce the devastation caused by numerous plagues and epidemics.

We are potentially on the threshold of a similar transformation in the world of human leadership. Presumptions about leadership are similar to the presumptions about medicine prior to 1850. Leaders affect every human on the planet and most people feel powerless to do anything about the decisions and actions of their leaders. In much the same way that bacteria and viruses create a huge impact upon the life forms that they infest, there is an invisible element that infects the quality of leadership worldwide. That element is the Predatory Leader.

If you look at a humane and compassionate leader sitting next to an effective and powerful predatory leader, at first glance it may be difficult to tell the difference. From Gandhi to Hitler, Martin Luther King to Idi Amin, they all had a lot in common. They all had ambition and vision. They had supporters who followed them blindly with adoration and they had enemies who wanted them eliminated in any way possible. They had the ability to motivate people and, pretty much every step of their careers, they were able to achieve significant results that contributed to how they were viewed by others and how they were able to move forward in those careers.

Just as viruses and bacteria did (and still do) some of their worst damage in locations dedicated to health, predatory leaders show up within every institution where we are expecting wise, compassionate and noble leadership. As these charismatic personalities are working their way into greater positions of power, they are doing whatever is necessary to get closer to their goals. The general population is not paying attention to them. By the time they have great public visibility, power and control, they are as entrenched as a fourth stage cancer and it is too late for the public body to get rid of them.

When we learn how to identify, contain and divert such people early in their careers, then we will have room in our institutions for the kind of leadership who will do the work we deserve of them. The process will be complex and will require an immense amount of dedication and research. The results will be a planet free of war, famine, and plague, and very importantly, a world where no one is denied the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

Introduction to Predatory Leadership

Welcome to the first page of my new blog on Predatory Leadership. Certainly the style of this blog will change as I learn how to use it and contribute more writing in the process. For now  I’ll be combining a combination of articles and journal writing. The subtext is, “what can we do to make the world a better place?” What appears to be lacking in current public dialogue is an understanding of the nature of those who cause harm in the world.

I am a mediator, a student of people and stories. I do believe that most people are good. I used to believe that within even the most evil was a spark of goodness that could be tapped to create a transformation from evil to good. Now, older and wiser, I see that often what appears to us to be the greatest evil is not perceived evil by those who actions cause harm to others. In their minds, they are the victims; those they hurt asked for it: “You made me do it.”

At this time I do not have a defined theory on Predatory Leadership; I have a cobbling of ideas – I have yet to organize them into a cohesive and accessible order. It is easy to go in any number of directions in expanding this theory – that the psychological makeup of a few (4% according to Martha Stout – The Sociopath Next Door) has had a hugely destructive impact upon humanity. I do not believe that violence is man’s default behavior. I believe that with some study, we can create new ways to understand the nature of leadership, how the worst people are able to become our leaders (in all arenas) and how to create the kind of change that could transform society into a truly nurturing environment for all. At best, such a change will take at least two or three generations – our human desire for instant gratification is one of the obstacles to achieving that goal.

As a student of the world, I have often observed a repeating occurrence: people in positions of power initiating actions and policies that result in great harm to large numbers of people and to the environment. Studies of leaders who exhibit psychopathic behavior could reveal how these people are different than the majority of the population and how they are able to prevail to the extent that their actions appear to be widely condoned, often without question, until the consequences of their arrogance is so egregious that people finally rise up against them.

My hope is that when this theory is defined, widely understood and accepted, it can form the basis of dialogue and strategy for preventing “toxic” or “predatory” people from gaining such power while at the same time, establishing systems to identify and encourage capable people of a conscious and compassionate nature to earn positions of leadership necessary to support and maintain a peaceful and nurturing society.

I also believe that such a theory can be used to create standards by which the actions of such people (and the organizations they rule) can be publically assessed and recognized for the damage they cause.

My belief, that I hope to develop into a plausible theory, is that many people in positions of power were able to attain those positions because, possessed with an abusive or sociopathic personality, a combination of determination and drive, and exceptional expertise in exploiting and manipulating human nature, they were able to out compete (or eliminate) any competition that stood in the way of their goal.

One reason they prevail is that, as predators on their way up the ladder, they are able to convince many of their followers that they are acting selflessly on their behalf when, in reality, they see their followers and others as a resource to be used, mined and exploited with truly no concern for their welfare. When they obtain control of the army, the reins of the corporation, the top position in their church or religion, etc., their position may be such that they have to maintain an outer façade of concern, or they may control such powerful forces that they can openly act on their agenda.

One of the reasons this condition is repeated is that outside of a few academicians, few understand the elements involved and can see the overall and complex picture.

Some of the elements include:

<>-<> A public lack of understanding of the nature and behavior of the abusive or sociopathic mind. (As with squares and rectangles, I believe there are commonalities and differences between abusers and sociopaths.)

<>-<> Akin to the medical profession prior to the discovery of microbes, a complete lack of awareness of how such personalities have formed, shaped and infected all facets of society since early history. (It is my hope that this theory or something like it can become the microscope through which humanity can finally recognize and understand the infectious nature of their predators.)

<>-<> A desire on the part of the average person to want someone else to be in charge, someone to take care of them, etc. As a result they are more open to accepting the outright lies of their leaders. When a sociopath says to his constituents, “Your problems are the fault of those ‘others’ and when I get rid of them for you, your world will be all right”, enough people support and believe the leader to the extent that dissenting voices are easily marginalized or eliminated.

<>-<> An ability to create confusing environments in which truth is obscured and false premises are accepted as truth.

More to come; I look forward to your comments.