Tuesday, October 16, 2007

There is no wood

Some people can't see the wood for the trees.

Others can't see the wood because they have a theory that there is no wood:

... the real world has become increasingly sceptical in recent years about the power of leadership, political parties have become more obsessed with it.
Go out onto the high street with a clipboard. Ask people to name the party leaders. Then ask them to name other MPs from the different parties.

Then come back and tell me again that "the real world has become increasingly sceptical in recent years about the power of leadership".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Or, ask them the names of the chief executives of the shops they've just visited in the high street. They won't know or care, even though those shops have catered to their wants vastly better than government does.
They know the names of the leaders because the MSM tells them - not because leaders contribute to their well-being. Everyone knew Mao's and Stalin's name.

Peter Risdon said...

All true, but slightly different points to the original one. Perhaps people should have grown sceptical about leadership, but they haven't. We still elect presidents, whatever their actual titles might be, and non-hierarchical approaches like that of the Greens have zero impact.