Spring is in the air, get excited about something

I sit now at a desk in a quiet room and even wonder what words will roll from my fingertips to the page you will see on your monitor. Will I bore you? Will you find me an arrogant hack and never come back again? Over 800 readers that appear now and again according to whoever is keeping score for me. Few respondents and once again, am I too judgemental am I too much of a know it all? Or are people just disinterested. I believe there is a lot of disinterest in all things in Canada that involve social, economic, and political issues. I once worked to raise awareness among young people and encourage that they could make change happen. Leadership! Carpe diem! Some I hope have taken a firm grasp on the things that I and others demonstrated to them and do show more of an interest in the things that matter to them on various  political levels. But some of them, too, put paid to the old adage "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" Perhaps they want to ring in change, but they are ships with sextant or compass on a cloudy night. they have no polestar to guide them Still others have found a tried and true way for at least moving their own agenda forward, pick a smaller pond, determine if it's worth it to you and stage a coup. As bloodless as possible of course, but power never really is shared, it's always taken. In those few situations, one has to wonder how the perpetrators of the coup manage to work together with trust afterward. I once used to share an expression with people in an office where individuals gossiping had become quite a problem. "If a person will gossip with you, they will gossip about you" Does no one else see that statement extrapolates to the person who will cut your throat (metaphorically...at least thus far) or destroy your reputation? I wish those who use this level of avarice to push forward their own greed based agendas all the luck in the world. In time, they'll need it. That has always been my opinion of people who move ahead thus, they are blindered by short range vision. My advice to them is see Reservoir Dogs.

My mood as a sit sipping my tea and enjoy the quiet of the house is one of a bit of melancholia. I have joined a couple of online presences to hopefully find that lively debate I sought. As I entered into a realm where the participants are obviously a little more gifted with use of the language and engaged in looking at some of the larger concepts in life, I was quite happy. I thought I had moved away from the vitriol, anger and bitterness of some of the news sites where people go immediately on the attack with insults instead of offering compelling or thoughtful counter-arguments. I found instead they just use a much higher level of insult. People too often seem incapable of rising up above their own pettiness and bruised egos to consider that someone might challenge how they feel about pretty much anything. Rather like, all opinions are welcomed as long as they agree with mine. some of the threads I've found are simply astonishing. Over 500 comments on the difference between a good leader and a good strategy and what is more important of the two. Well, I've got an answer for what works for neither of the two: having to go through 500 redundant and superfluous responses to make a decision.

A piece of news that I received last week is what got me thinking about all these things. Leadership and the ever reaching tentacles of apathy. It's always interesting to see people scrambling to prove to their constituents that what they are doing is noteworthy and not wasted, that the apathy is not deserved. It all called to mind some of the things that I have drawn upon in leadership discussions in the past. Julius Caesar was one of my all time favorites as a leader and I have drawn upon his statesmanship often, but things did end badly for Julius. I am given to recalling that Shakespearean scene where Marc Antony pokes his finger through the blood drenched hole in Caesar's robe and quotes 'and Brutus, as we know, was Caesar's angel.' Don't it always seem to go.....So, anyway, I've always also been a bit of a fan of General MacArthur, he made a comeback in WW2 and beat the Japanese all the way back to Japan, never got credit for it because his bosses decided to use Japan to test out their new atomic toys. MacArthur was often referred to as the American Caesar, there was an excellent movie made about his life in 1977 with Gregory Peck in the title role. Here's a wee clip from the and of the movie, when Eisenhower gets elected US President; I find the scene at home with his wife most poignant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UommQEnknQg