In 2015 I came out with a book of the above title.* The point of the book was that while leadership in America has always been difficult to exercise, it was becoming more difficult than ever before.
Historically, leading in America has been hard because, on account of our history and ideology, we Americans are fundamentallly anti-authority. Contemporaneously, leading is even harder because of changes in the context that mitigate against leaders leading and followers following. These more recent changes include those in culture and technology. Precisely because the context has changed, so have leaders and, more to the point, followers. Followers are far less willing now quietly to go along – to follow – than they used to be.
Don’t believe me? Ask Claudine Gay, the recently inaugurated president of Harvard University whose series of missteps in response to the attacks on Israel by Hamas brought on her head widespread wrath. One of her most eminent predecessors, Lawrence Summers, went public with his anger saying that Gay’s statement(s) on the situation had failed “to meet the needs of the moment” and lacked “moral clarity.”
Others, such as mega-Harvard funders Leslie and Abigail Wexner, went so far as to write a letter to the Harvard Board of Overseers saying that they were “stunned and sickened at the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians by terrorists.” Moreover, in their letter the Wexners announced that their foundation was “formally ending its financial and programmatic relationship with Harvard and the Harvard Kennedy School.” Harvard is an immensely wealth institution. But even for Harvard, losing the Wexners as funders is a bad blow.
President Gay is by no means the only university president who ran into trouble on this issue. The leaders of Indiana University, Northwestern University, and Stanford University, among others, had similar situations play out – though none so publicly and perhaps painfully as at Harvard.
These presidents, then, are simply signs of the times. Signs of a time in which leadership in America is hard and getting harder. Signs of a time in which constituents and constituencies come out of the woodwork demanding to have a say. Signs of a time in which followers refuse to follow – including students who have taken to protesting frequently and furiously. Signs of a time in which the costs of being a leader are more and the benefits less.
No wonder the average tenure of a college president has dropped to five years. Not long ago it was ten.
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*Stanford University Press.
There was a previous time (when I was in school) when University Presidents had a difficult time with student viewpoints likely even worse than now. College is a time when authority is questioned by Youth, as it should be. It is even more prominent during times of rapid cultural change. The value of wisdom is naturally called into question, when the past has less value because the environment is rapidly changing. (in 1974 I coauthored an article on this topic). It is most essential that University Presidents express their viewpoint, but always support academic freedom, even in the face of wealthy donors threats.
In regards to the Middle East conflict you might find the allegory below of interest.
Forgot to Hate
It was a usual day for Goldfish. As she usually does, after spending a little time warming in the sun in the shallows of the large pond, she calls home, she was meandering along looking for nice tasty insects that had fallen in the water. There were lots of insects in the water and so she found them easily and she was happy and content. That is, she was happy and content until she spied not far ahead of her a frog moving forward through the water. What caused her immediate worry, was the frog was swimming in the direction of a snake, which was swimming as fast as it could toward him, planning to turn him into a tasty meal. Frogs evolved to only move forward and so turning takes a very long time. At the rate it was going Goldfish could see that there is no way that the frog could escape. She immediately moved to action. She swam in-between the frog and the snake, making the snake think that there was a tasty meal even closer than the frog and the snake immediately began to go after her. Goldfish knew she could swim faster than the snake so as soon as she saw the snake was following her, she turned far to the right, which was away from the frog. As she had hoped the snake followed her and when it was far enough away from the frog, the goldfish sped up leaving the snake far behind.
While the fish was a very quick thinker, she did not have a long memory. In fact, Goldfish, like all goldfish can only remember for 15 seconds. After that, it is like it never happened. The frog however could remember. After the frog was sure that the snake had left the area ,it set out to find Goldfish so that it could thank it for saving it’s life. As the frog pursued its journey to find the fish, it began to feel very badly. It remembered that last year when Goldfish was just a baby, it had tried to eat her and now, it had saved his life risking her own. It took nearly all day, but finally the frog spotted the goldfish. Now that Goldfish had grown up some, it no longer was afraid of the frog because she had become way too large for the frog to eat.
The frog immediately began thanking Goldfish and was about to apologize for what it had done previously. But before it could, it realized that the goldfish could no longer remember what it had done just that morning. Frog explained in some detail what Goldfish had done. Goldfish admitted that she could not remember but that she was very happy that she had saved Frog from the snake. The more the fish talked the more badly the Frog felt about his past aggression. Goldfish asked frog to be her friend, but explain to Frog that she would need to be reminded in the future that they were friends. Frog promised he would remind her and wanted to be her friend. Goldfish responded, that it was nice to have a friend who could remember things and help remind her of the things that she should remember. She told Frog how lucky he was to have a good memory and wished she had a memory like his. Frog felt overwhelmed with guilt. He told the fish how lucky she was to not have a memory. Because his memory was making him feel so bad right now, so guilty that he wished he could forget some of the bad things he had done. Frog also reminded Goldfish of how great her quick thinking was and how he wished he could think as quickly as her.
Frog and Goldfish became great friends. Frog would find Goldfish and remind her that they were friends and that they liked to hang out together on the pond. They would spend most afternoons together hanging out. He would remind her of things that they talked about and of times they had spent together and other memories which he had of things that happened on the pond, and she would respond with her quick ideas and quick wit. When Frog reminded her that he still had a lot of guilt about his past deeds, Goldfish reflected to him that he could focus his attention on the good deeds he can do in the future rather than being stuck in his past and continuing to punish himself for the bad deeds. Frog thought that was a great idea, and said yes, my very design is to keep moving forward and not to look back and I think I would be happier if I lived my life like that.
One day, Frog and Goldfish were doing their usual afternoon hang out and talk, when they began to hear a terrible rumbling noise. They look to the sky, but could not see a thunderstorm. Soon after the pond began to become rougher and rougher. But they could not feel the wind blowing hard. Moments later, they were surrounded by angry elephants who were attacking each other fiercely, rearing up and trying to destroy each other. Frog and Goldfish were in the middle of a terrible elephant battle. At any time an elephant could pounce on them in the shallow water and they would be crushed and gone forever. They started swimming for their life. Frog suffered a hurt foot from an elephant’s blow and Goldfish had to push him from behind swimming her hardest until, finally they reached safety. They were too exhausted to even talk. The next day, they barely had enough energy to feed themselves. Gradually, Frog’s leg got better and they returned to their usual activities.
When Frog reminded Goldfish of the elephant battle, she responded with wonderment as to why the elephants, who were of the same species, would be so hostile towards each other It made no sense to her, no matter how quickly she could think about it. Frog told her that they came from different herds. That there pond was on the dividing line between the territory of the two herds. That they had many previous battles. Still neither of them could come up with a reason as to why they kept fighting. The fish came up with what the frog thought was a fantastic idea, which was to ask the elephants why they hated each other. Of course, they would have to do that when the other herd was not around.
Since this was one of the best watering spots around, it did not take long before one of the herds showed up to drink of the delicious pond water. Goldfish told Frog that, he had a wonderful, bellowing voice, and Frog reminded her that he croaked loudly almost every night to practice. It was decided that he would be the one to talk to the elephants. When the elephants showed up Frog ask them why they harbored so much enmity for the neighboring herd. The elephants responded, that although they were otherwise a friendly herd and always wanted to give their neighbors a chance, that for generations the other herd had treated them very badly and could never be trusted. Since the elephant’s memory is so good, the elephant could remember back for years and told Goldfish and Frog of many many times when the other herd had treated them evilly.
The next day when the frog and fish were spending their usual late afternoons engaged in conversation, the frog reminded the fish of the conversation with the elephants. Fish concluded afterwords, that it would be good to hear from the other herd, why they were so mean to their neighbors, who were of their own kind. Frog told the fish once again, she had been so thoughtful in coming up with that idea.
A few weeks later, the other herd was again in the area and that afternoon came to refresh themselves at the pond. Frog again engaged the other herd, inquiring in a none judgmental way as to why they had such a hostile attitude toward their neighboring herd. The elephants immediately launched into a long tirade of past evils they had experienced in their encounters with their opposition. They said despite their own herds inherit desire to be friendly with everyone, they had suffered such mistreatment from that herd, that they could no longer trust them. They felt the only way to maintain their own safety, was to make the evil herd always fearful of their strength and fearsome ability to defend themselves. When Frog confronted them with the other herd’s view that they were the injured party, all of the elephants of the herd proclaimed that that was just another example of the evil herds attempts at deception.
The next day when the Frog recounted the encounter to Goldfish, he concluded by saying, “I don’t think the elephants will ever change, because they spend so much time looking backwards rather than moving forward and they are great at looking backwards because, they have such great memories. The fish responded, whenever I’m around you, I see you only moving forward, you can’t even look back and I realize how great it is to look forward and try to make things better. Frog smiled and replied, “and you’ve taught me the benefits of letting go of the bad memories of the past which makes moving forward all the easier.” The Fish proposed, “maybe you and I could teach the elephants, what we’ve learned together, to create a different future.” The Frog retorted, but they are so stuck in their ways.” Goldfish said, “you might be right, change might be impossible, but I say we try.” Frog said yes we can only move forward, but how might we even get them to listen so we can help them.” Goldfish said OK, so they have a great deal of hatred for each other because they remember all the bad things which they have done. Remind me again did they say anything else.” Yes remember, they each said that they themselves were kindhearted and generally tried to be good to others.” The fish questioned, “do you remember a time when you observed them, violating that belief?” Yes Frog thought in amazement, they almost killed us by their doing battle with each other.” the fish knowingly smiled and said that’s a chance for us to help them, I will tell you about an idea I have.” They together hatched a plan for the next time the elephants were moving to attack each other.
For several months whenever each of the herds came to the pond to refresh themselves, they did not come at the same time. And then one day it happened. The elephants spotted each other moving toward the pond on opposite sides and formed into opposing attack forces. Like the last time they fought,
Frog and Goldfish found themselves right in-between them. They began to move toward each other, their anger rapidly growing as they remembered the wrongs perpetrated by the opposition so many times. Just before their roars thundered so loudly that nothing else could be heard, Frog croaked as loudly as he could, “before you trample and kill Goldfish and I in your quest to destroy each other please listen for a moment.” They slowed their pace and quieted their roars to listen. “You have all convinced me of your kind hearts. Yet, if you continue your quest to destroy the other group, you will likely cause great hurt to others you say you are kind to. You describe yourselves as having no other choice and maybe you are correct. I at one time thought Goldfish and I had to be enemies forever. Then one day Goldfish risked her life to save my life and the impossible happened. She and I became best friends. All this happened because Goldfish could not remember that I had once tried to eat her. And I can’t look back, as I am only designed to look in front of me and move forward. For a long time afterwards, I suffered tremendous guilt, self hatred really. So I asked Goldfish, if she would still like me if she knew that in the past, I had been bad to her. She replied, I value our friendship too much to let the past destroy our friendship. Right now you are treating me so well, and you need to remember, you are designed to move forward, not keep looking back. So my friends the Elephants, you do have a choice. You can let the past control you, let hatred control you, and maybe kill Goldfish and I, or you can forget to hate and move forward.
The Elephants thought a moment, then slowly turned around and started walking in opposite directions. Goldfish said, it is far from friendship, and maybe it will only last a day, but it might be a new way forward.
Written during the Israeli-Hamas War