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WHY
the World Crisis
•
tn
Leadership?
by
Keith W. Stump
Global problems are rapidly overwhelming the capacity of governments to make
farsighted decisions. How will today's leadership crisis be solved?
N
o
NEED
i s greater
today than th at of
competent leadership!
The technological
;.-'-"':::-,~~
advances of the 20th
century have created
unprecedented new
problems and unex–
pected perils that
have seemingly out–
paced mankind's abil–
ity to cope.
The big question of
the 1990s will be that
of
human survival!
Never before in history
has the threat of human extinction
been greater.
Governments Adrift
Today's bewildering problems are
crying out for solutions, for capable
leaders who will make right deci–
sions. Yet most governments seem
adrift , or they struggle in vain
against onrushing tides of rapid
change. Mountiog global crises tes–
tify to the general
failure
of mod–
ern leadership!
Why?
Make no mistake! This world is
September 1985
on a colli-
sion course
with the future! We are rapidly
nearing a time of decision. Forces
are even now impelling mankind
toward a crisis unparalleled in
human history. Will wise leaders
act in time to avert it?
Lessons of History
"History repeats itself," declares
the old saying. And, in a certain
sense, it is true.
History is a great teacher. I t
teacbes by example. In history it is
possible to discover cycl.ical
rhythms, a recurrent ebb and fl.ow of
events. The general
course of the future is
thus written in tbe
chronicles of the past.
As wise king Solomon
observed anciently:
"The thing that
hath been, it is that
which shall be; and
that which is done is
that which shall be
done: and there is no
new thing under the
sun" (Eccl. l :9).
The reason?
History is simply a
record of the principies
of
human nature,
writ–
ten on time. The basic urges and
drives of human nature are abiding
and fundamental. They manifest
themselves through time in largely
predictable patterns.
One of the recurrent cycles or
patterns evident in history involves
the cyclic nature of leadership.
Periods of dynamic and enlight–
ened rule by reasonable, fair–
minded men are generally followed
by periods of decay and crisis under
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