I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.
Back in 1970, dismayed by the barbarous ideologies and total wars of the 20th century, the acclaimed physical chemist and polymath, Michael Polanyi, evaluated the prevailing mindset of scientific rationalism in an essay entitled, “Why did we destroy Europe?”. He concluded that scientific rationalism, for all its obvious benefits, had through its chronic scepticism undermined human reason and triggered the growth of a widespread nihilism that could see no meaning and purpose in life. The spiritual dimension of humanity had been repressed, with catastrophic consequences that continue to haunt our troubled world today.
The global leadership crisis is but one of those consequences. It’s impossible to lead people who put self before family and community, and who believe personal fulfilment only comes from possessions, power, popularity, and pleasure. The almost universal loss of trust and the breakdown of relationships at all levels explain why leadership has been replaced by manipulation and bullying.
The purpose of the human intellect is to seek the truth. The knowledge we acquire each day needs a properly developed worldview to serve as a framework to provide coherence. For 2000 years, that framework has been fashioned by the philosophical, historical, religious, and literary achievements of Western civilization transmitted from generation to generation by classical education. The rejection of the framework that has gathered momentum over the past 200 years has resulted in philosophical dead ends, moral confusion, tyranny, and spiritual emptiness for which science and technology have no answers.
The postmodern cynicism and the alarming incidence of mental illness that assail western society today grew out of the scientific rationalism that Polanyi criticised. Its central claim is that truth is a cultural construct, and there is no such thing as absolute truth, which establishment elites repudiate as a mere expedient for right-wing demagogues intent upon exploiting disadvantaged minorities. This ignores the reality that understanding the world and our place in it is a bedrock human need, grounding our desire for freedom and community.
So what is a leader to do in this existential crisis? Well, leadership is about human flourishing, and the first requirement for a person to flourish is the development of interior peace.
We all desire an interior peace that lets us deal more confidently with the challenges of life. Although many people make choices that result in interior disorder and even chaos, those choices are usually made out of a confused sense of what will bring them fulfillment. For example, people who choose to fuel an addiction to drugs or alcohol often slipped into addiction in the first place because of a simple desire for happiness. The temporary fix gives a fleeting sense of satisfaction, but ultimately contributes to a loss of the interior peace for which we all yearn. When the choices become addictive, people find themselves trapped in a downward spiral.
There are many other ways in which people pursue fulfilment in deceptive attractions. Success, money, sex, power, and popularity are all lures that the ego finds hard to resist, and the related temptations of temperament – selfishness, anger, cheating, deception, and the like – can become as addictive as any drug. True inner peace requires us to unmask those illusory pathways to fulfilment and to expose the pain and suffering they always bring about both in others and ourselves.
True interior peace is the clearest sign that we are making wise decisions in our quest for fulfilment. And wise decisions are always those that are based on truth. Whenever you make a decision based on a lie, you can be sure it is not a wise one. Of course, to choose truth in all circumstances, no matter what the cost to self may be, is obviously difficult for us as we try to manage the demands of our ego, and it inevitably requires self-sacrifice, but that, inescapably, is the road to true interior peace.
Growing mental strength and emotional maturity are the benefits associated with true interior peace, and one experiences greater clarity of thought and the confidence that is always necessary in confronting the challenges of life. Interior peace is a measure of real progress in the development of personal integrity or wholeness, and that is precisely the fulfilment we all seek, whether consciously or otherwise. Aristotle called it eudaemonia, which means personal fulfilment built on virtue; contemporary thinkers misleadingly call it happiness, a shallow understanding that explains why so many people are convinced they are happy when they indulge in fleeting self-gratification.
Eudaemonia is where leadership begins; a leader must cultivate it personally in order to inspire it in other people. The expedient is simply defined, but extraordinarily hard to put into practice, as both history and the world around us make plain. Yet it is, and has always been, the only way.
This is a very insightful analysis of where Western culture went wrong and continues to do so. Speaking as one who was poisoned as a child by these philosophers and so-called scientists, the damage was immense.
My road to inner peace was guided by connecting with the spirit of love that is the foundation of all existence. I feel lucky to have had this. Many people are guiding others on different roads to this same destination, it seems that civilization has finally realized its bankruptcy and people en masse are turning off the path leading to annihilation. I hope more people wake up to the road we have been on and turn off in time to heal the earth from our abuse and neglect. Well done!