How is the leaders barometer doing?
We are in a terrible leadership crisis. Everywhere we go, leaders do not address the core problems.
What problems?
Inequality and the environment. The rulers denounce it, talk and talk, but they do nothing about it or they make it worse.
Do we have leaders?
Even those who have the opportunity and potential to make positive change fail, encounter obstacles, and are defeated or corrupted along the way. Changing the world in times like these is very difficult, and this is what leadership is all about.
Do leaders emerge in difficulty?
Those who we remember, because we admire them or because we vilify them, those who transformed, have emerged in moments of crisis. Crisis is what allows the leader to put his vision into practice.
Well now they should come in droves.
The problem with crises is that all kinds of potential leaders appear. In the 1930s, the Great Depression gave rise to the leadership of Adolf Hitler and Imperial Japan invading China.
Bad leaders.
They took advantage of the crisis to implement an agenda that was imperial, genocidal, racist, and aggressor. But Roosevelt launched a social protection program.
What characteristics should we look for to choose a good leader?
In their actions, but we live in a world that focuses on personality and rhetoric.
An example.
Now we are seeing a tragic panorama in the Middle East and we have the United States and Europe talking about peace; result: there is no peace due to continued support for the war. What is happening is a failure.
Do we have examples from the past to aspire to?
I usually show mistakes that should not be repeated. Sad examples: When the Japanese leadership decides to attack Pearl Harbor, what did they not see coming? The leaders in Japan did not understand their limitations, that was their mistake. I will now tell you about the Vietnam War.
Because?
It reminds me a lot of what is happening now. We had an American president, Lyndon Johnson, very popular for his internal policies in 1960, but he committed himself to making the Vietnam War a great war and it ended fatally.
Millions of Vietnamese dead.
And American families destroyed. Lyndon Johnson leaves office and dies shortly after. They are stories that tell us about caution, and I hope we can learn something, there is no need to repeat the same mistakes, let’s avoid these types of tragedies.
Well now the world is rearming itself.
We are in a state of collective madness; Knowing what we know about how the world is, knowing the real problems, that the force that drives us continues to be conflict makes me desperate.
What do your young students say?
That they do not have any enmity with young people from other countries, quite the opposite; but the leaders continue to think with nationalist patterns and are capable of getting into a war at times like these.
Why do they do it?
I would say that they are short-sighted and selfish, they have a lack of consideration for future generations. I would point out that the incompatibility between power structures and doing good is the main problem of our society.
Take a chance on a leader who can make a difference.
I’ll give you an example, although I don’t want it to be interpreted as being a heroine, but I’m going to mention Greta Thunberg.
Why does he choose her?
Because climate change should be the center of the agenda of every political program of all leaders. I find it depressing that they leave it in the hands of children.
They let them speak at the UN and they applaud.
I hope these young leaders are listened to and supported massively. If not, we will continue at the mercy of economic interests, among them that of the large armies.
What does history teach about leading?
Genuine leaders are honest and tell the truth even if it is difficult. Sadly, many have an unfortunate fate, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. But they continue to inspire us.
Why do rulers want war and the vast majority of citizens want peace?
You don’t know how much thought I put into that. That gap is intolerable. One votes for the lesser evil, which is still evil.
The best lesson the past has taught him.
Leave a good legacy, and that’s all: small acts, gestures of kindness, of conscience.
