There are a great many extremely difficult challenges facing humanity in near-future years. How can leaders be assisted in navigating these challenges? Some of the leaders are causing or exacerbating the challenges, and so can’t be helped. Other of the challenges are lead by long term trends or technological developments. So for many of the challenges, there isn’t much hope. National culture change in a positive direction is extremely difficult, and is usually overcome by ideology, climate, geography, evil, natural resources, culture, and technology. Each has its own trajectory. Artificial intelligence provides a good example—can effective intervention be obtained before the technology runs away?
History tells us no. Examples include nuclear weapons. We’re just darn lucky that nuclear weapons have not been used in anger since 1945. Luck and hope and feeling good about ourselves are not strategies. In terms of nuclear weapons, the current crop of world and national leaders may not be as restrained as past ones, especially given some of their apocalyptic beliefs and views. Iran is developing nuclear weapons, and will be tempted to use them. Putin of Russia has already threatened to use them. So a question is, what apocalypse catches up with us first?
It might seem futile, but here are10 ideas for leadership navigating for survival:
- Encourage attention to the lessons of history. What has happened in the past can happen in the present and future. It is within the realm of possibility, because it’s happened before.
- Call out falsehood wherever it manifests. A lie told creates an irreparable injury.
- Encourage use of facts, evidence, reason, logic, and critical thinking.
- Try to bring discussions around to morality and ethics. But bear in mind that views of what is moral and ethical vary widely.
- Recognize that there is evil in the world, and smite it. Many people believe in good, but don’t believe in the existence of evil. How is good possible without evil? Not everything is explainable. Some problems are aporetic, that is to say, without solutions. A harm without a solution is evil.
- Do not reward bad choices. Again, the Palestine-Israel crisis provides an example. In World War II, the Mufti of Jerusalem supported the Nazis and raised Muslim legions for them. Then in 1948, Arab countries surrounding the nascent state of Israel attacked and lost. They attacked several more times over the decades and lost each time. War is hell. One should not start a war unless one is prepared to accept the consequences.
- Discourage hypocrisy. For example, very few feminist and women’s groups in the US have condemned Hamas for its violence against women on October 7, 2023. How will they recover their loss in credibility? This is also an example of a lack of prioritization. They condemn men for a casual sexual inuendo, but are silent on vast and terrible evil.
- Encourage a philosophy of “do not harm” where possible. But bear in mind that a concept of harm includes magnitude, severity, egregiousness, and frequency.
- Do not reward self-harm. Today, many people are choosing to use fentanyl and dying, 50% of people with disabilities vote Republican, 52% of white women vote Republican, more Hispanics are voting Republican, fewer African-Americans are voting Democratic, even though Republicans don’t care at all about people with disabilities, women, Hispanics, and African-Americans.
- Try hard not to engage in lazy linguistic tricks and ticks like “mansplaining,” “oppression,” “settler colonialism,” “white privilege,” “neoliberalism,” and substituting epithets for thought, for example by labeling anything one doesn’t like as “racist” or “white supremacy.” Remember that one does not cure sexism by being sexist, or racism by being racist.
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