We: Our Declaration of Interdependence
Chapter Three — Our Leadership Crisis
If you have not read the previous chapters, here is the link to the online (Medium) Book and all of the Chapters.
The need for new leaders is urgent. We need new leadership in communities everywhere. We need leaders who know how to nourish and rely on the innate creativity, freedom, generosity, and caring of people. We need leaders who are life-affirming rather than life-destroying. Unless we quickly figure out how to nurture and support this new leadership, we can’t hope for peaceful change. We will, instead, be confronted by increasing anarchy and societal meltdowns. — Margaret Wheatley
We are in the midst of a global leadership crisis. Respect for leaders (in all sectors of our society) is at a historical low. Why don’t we trust or respect our leaders?
Power and decision-making authority are concentrated at the top of our organizational hierarchies. Top-down didactic education contributes to our deep divisions and the divisions we experience in all sectors of our society. Top-down leadership decisions are siloed; they are made from specialized or narrow perspectives. This traps us in a narrow-minded and even closed-loop problem/solution cycle. We were taught that there are right and wrong answers, and we approach complex problems with that same mindset.
We live in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) world. There are many existential threats (wicked challenges) facing humanity. Our dominant paradigms created or contributed to these wicked challenges. We have made decisions using technical dualistic thinking that traps us in the problem-solving cycle. We have been working on these wicked challenges in a cyclical process. A group of people get together to solve a problem, and the solution leads to new problems that need more solutions.
Another way of looking at this is to describe the issue not as a problem but as a situation that motivates people to gather to find ways to transform the situation. For example, the situation is gun violence and mass shootings. One group of people gathers to solve the problem by placing armed guards, arming teachers, and allowing older students to carry guns to school. Their mindset or paradigm is that more guns are the only way to protect lives. Another group of people gather to solve the problem by regulating and restricting access to guns. Their mindset is that too many and the wrong types of guns are the cause of the violence. The two factions oppose each other, and no progress is made.
Another example is addressing the human causes of our current climate crisis. One faction blames the fossil fuel industry and promotes electric vehicles and solar energy. Another faction promotes a vegan diet to decrease the negative impacts of mass production of meat. Another faction completely denies that we are experiencing a climate crisis. Any incremental changes arising from siloed approaches to complex threats will always be inadequate.
Wicked challenges cannot be transformed in the traditional problem-solving approach because there is generally no clear understanding of the situation. The first issue may be defining the situation as a problem because diverse groups of people may interpret the same situation differently because of their psychological filters.
Wicked challenges include issues like extreme poverty, hunger, environmental degradation, nuclear weapons and power, increasing natural disasters, terrorism, migration, housing scarcity, pandemics, decreasing birth rates (aging population), decreasing life expectancy, and deteriorating public health. Wicked challenges can be systemic and ongoing or abrupt and urgent. Wicked challenges are inherently complex. They are also volatile, uncertain, and ambiguous.
The 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic is one example of an abrupt, wicked challenge. A tiny virus quickly brought the world to the brink. There was no consensus or shared reality with the pandemic. The pandemic triggered primitive emotions: fear, frustration, boredom, altruism, selfishness, and distrust. Humanity reverted to our lemming or lizard brain, the part of our brain that automatically controls fight, flight, feeding, fear, and freezing up. The lemming analogy fits the best. The myth of the lemmings is that they follow each other off tall seaside cliffs when their population becomes unsustainable.
COVID-19 produced a corresponding pandemic of disinformation. Discerning the truth about the disease or the vaccines developed to help us survive was nearly impossible. COVID-19 created mass moral panic. Panic can be as contagious as any virus. Panic can also be deadly.
Given that the global leadership crisis preceded the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not have the leaders or the confidence in our leaders to guide us through a dangerous time. Nations and states had different experiences of the pandemic because they had different kinds of leaders guiding them.
Although not all states struggled equally, overall, the response of the United States was abysmal, given the science behind the development of the vaccines was primarily funded by US taxpayers. The then President of the United States had no knowledge or skills about how best to react to the threat. He ignored public health experts. His primary concern was his ratings and popularity. The United States also developed the internet and most social media platforms, which proliferated false information and mass confusion.
The deep paradigm divisions within the United States prevented our leaders and individuals from effectively responding to the complex threats surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic was a VUCA event.
Social media and technology were unable to help us during the pandemic. We sometimes think technology and artificial intelligence will solve our wicked challenges. Yet, our experience during COVID-19 demonstrated the inherent weakness in the world of unlimited bits, bytes, data, and algorithms. There was no consensus about what was true and what was false. We were overwhelmed with information and data and unable to access sufficient emotional intelligence. The greater the divisions within a nation, the less effective the decisions made by the leaders.
Social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others) profited from the pandemic. This was not surprising because their business model intentionally profits from dividing us. Although they benefited from record profits, they refused to allocate resources to remove false information or conspiracy theories. Hundreds of thousands of people died unnecessary deaths, and millions will suffer health consequences from the long-term effects of their COVID-19 infection because social media created irrational fears about solid-tested medical science. Public health experts and medical professionals’ lives were threatened by people who consumed and believed false information that went viral on social media.
It is time to reconstruct relations between people and leaders — national and international. Time for leaders to listen and show that they care — about their own people and about the global stability and solidarity on which we all depend. — António Guterres
The concentration of power by a handful of global technology and social media CEOs has become a wicked challenge. The Masters of the Technology Universe (the tech CEOs) have a common distinguishing characteristic: grandiose narcissism. Grandiose narcissism is a mental state characterized by exaggerated feelings of superiority, entitlement, self-importance, an obsessive need for admiration, and a lack of empathy towards others. Elon Musk is a classic example of grandiose narcissism. Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin also fit the description. Studies have shown much higher percentages of grandiose narcissists at the CEO level of multinational corporations than in the general population. It makes sense. You don’t get to become one of the Masters of the Universe by sharing and caring.
There is no correlation between narcissism and intelligence. We should not assume that the Masters of the Universe are more intelligent than we are. On the other hand, there is a correlation between narcissism and low EQ (emotional intelligence). A narcissist thinks only of themselves and their personal interests. They are unable to understand the needs of others. They already think they are great, better than other people, so they rarely try to improve their people skills. Narcissists exhibit poor interpersonal relationships. Their excessive need for attention tends to draw followers, not peers. The narcissist views their followers as extensions of themselves. They cannot discern their followers’ needs, which leads to less pro-social behavior. The negative traits of the narcissist increase whenever their ego is threatened.
Which came first? Is it the narcissist characteristic of the CEOs, or is there something inherently divisive about the technology? Social media and the rise of a new wealthy class of social media influencers correlate with a sharp increase in narcissistic behavior among adolescents. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter are particularly problematic because they intentionally encourage the oversharing of personal images (selfies) and opinions.
Younger generations who have never experienced a culture without social media are the most vulnerable to intentional divisiveness and narcissism of the social media that consumes so much of their time. The mental health costs of higher amounts of time online (and on their phones) have also increased depression and anxiety. The use of social media affects young people in different ways. The higher a youth is on the narcissism spectrum, the more likely they are to have positive feelings about their social media life.
Vulnerable narcissism can be distinguished from grandiose narcissism in part by where the person lands on the introvert/extrovert and direct/indirect continuums. Young people with vulnerable narcissism are more likely to lack self-confidence and are more covert in displaying their narcissism. Grandiose narcissism is characterized by dominance, self-assurance, and aggression. Grandiose narcissists are more likely to become social media influencers. Vulnerable narcissists may engage in constant comparison, judging themselves harshly, feeling that they don’t measure up, and feeling envious and resentful.
There is a frightening correlation between mass school shootings and social media. A mass shooter is more likely to fall high on the narcissism spectrum. The strongest correlation between mental health and mass shooters is an extreme sense of superiority. Many mass school shooters fall into the vulnerable narcissist category. Their resentment and envy can lead to revenge shootings that end in suicide.
Grandiose narcissistic mass shooters crave attention and seek notoriety. We should not mention the names, share photos, or manifestos of mass shooters because that publicity tends to inspire other malignant narcissists.
The negative impacts of social media on young people must be added to our list of wicked challenges. This is one wicked challenge that could be transformed into a positive. A critical wicked challenge is figuring out how to allow younger generations to reap all the positive benefits of technology while mitigating or removing the dangers.
We must act quickly to address the wicked challenges and opportunities artificial intelligence and social media present.
Over time, then, the implications of these technologies will push humanity to navigate a path between the poles of catastrophe and dystopia. This is the essential dilemma of our age… The only coherent approach to technology is to see both sides at the same time. ― Mustafa Suleyman
Author’s note: Writing about the forces underlying our current deeply divided world is challenging. If you are offended, we apologize. If you are interested in responding or contributing to the conversation, please consider responding to this chapter or submitting a story to this publication. Please do not attack the messenger. Critique the ideas and content instead. We plan to publish this book (paper and eBooks) in April, and your comments or suggestions will be taken into consideration.
