in my readings of history, this question of leadership often
comes to my attention…for example, Rome and the
Roman Emperors… we have plenty examples of both “good”
and “bad” emperors… now by what example did the Roman
Emperors lead… for example, an emperor like Augustus…
he would be called a “good” emperor… he ran the Roman empire for
over 20 year and was known to be a “moralist”… for example, he
spent much of his time, trying to get proper marriages and then
out of those marriages, children… he was a big fan of populating
Rome with Romans…he led by example in this… now my question is
how does this leadership by example, setting proper examples actually
“pass” down to the lower classes… or said another way… how much of
the lower classes follow the lead, behaviors of the upper class or even the
leader of the society… so how much did the lower classes follow Augustus?
said badly, but you get the point…it is my proposition that the morals
of any given leader will help… note help, in the actions of the lower classes,
middle and working poor…would the middle class follow the actions of
their leader if they could but afford it… meaning if the leader was a lying,
cheating, both in monetary and marriage, would the lower classes… the middle
class and working poor follow that leader into lying and cheating and whoring?
the thing about moralists is simple, they almost always say, do as I say, not as I do…
for moralist are quite often the ones who are the ones who lie and cheat and steal
and whore the most…you find this true in TV evangelists for example, the list
of TV evangelists who sinned is a long one… Jim Baker is just one example…
I am just too lazy to look it up the whole list… so, we have had two presidents
who have lived up to the high standards, Obama and as much as I hate, just hate,
bush Jr. he was at least a moral person… of course, outside of his homosexual trysts
in the WH, but hay, he was relatively moral person…I suspect that after the years
of dropping birth rates in teens, that the rate will go up and I suspect it will continue
to rise as long as there is a GOP member in the WH…and when the dem’s return,
it will go down again and I believe this is due to the influence of acting moral in the
WH… now we get to Clinton and he clearly wasn’t that moral, as least in regards to
his marriage… and I think that had a negative effect on how people acted…
the leader sets the pace, sets the example and if he/she sets a negative example,
this impacts the nation as a whole… however, I also foresee a very negative
economic situation about to occur and I believe this will impact “morality” greatly…
just how I am not sure… so my thesis is that because 45 is a immoral person,
this will lead to greater immorality within the population… my problem is
being able to prove this thesis, given I have no real way to prove it…
it is an interesting question…
Kropotkin