Another Orange Man

It sickens me that men who are accused of misogyny, poor management skills, fiscal mismanagement, sexual abuse, excessive drinking, rudeness and/or mistreatment of others are placed in or elected to or voted for positions of power.

It is striking how “Teflon-esque” these men are; it is enough for them to shout “smear campaign” and “targeted slurs” and “political targeting” and “Leftist babble,” and the truth about their behavior and their character gets buried. And there seems to be a felt need of others to “follow the leader,” even as he plunges into mud or off a bridge; this is disheartening.

We have lost, it seems, our individual and collective spines.

Two added consequences

I think there are two added problems in our midst: (1) the acceptance of misbehavior is becoming contagious; and (2) we have appointed/ anointed “leaders” who don’t know how to lead.

Details

We are seeing a rise in bad behavior in workplaces, in schools, in medical settings, in families; I am seeing it in both my work and personal life. It is making work harder; it is damaging to people.

When a Bishop’s calls for mercy are scorned and those professing religion act meanly toward others in many ways including verbally, we are in trouble as a nation. I’d go so far as to say we are normalizing bad behavior and distorting previous acceptable social norms.

Leaders need experience; they need judgment; they need to listen; they have to embrace a myriad of perspectives; they need to role model. If you pick your chronies and financial backers and your sycophants and your family relatives and your children’s former fiancée or their current in-laws for positions of import, your selection criteria are bent out of shape. You are not picking leaders based on leadership qualities. Poor leadership is workplace destabilizing. In a nation, poor leadership produces grave consequences.

As my readers know, I’ve disengaged from mean people. But I am actually doing more than that. I am also calling out dangerous people, folks whose behavior (misbehavior) can damage other people.

This includes trying to stop people from driving if they are impaired for any number of reasons and could injure or kill someone else; it includes those responsible for enforcing our laws who choose instead to flaunt them; it includes those who are licensed to care for others in educational or medical settings but instead abuse those in their care sexually; it includes those given great responsibility for the wellbeing of an organization or a nation but who instead discriminate against and disenfranchise others.

I used to believe that merit wins out in the end. I used to think that most self professing religious folks act with empathy and conscience. I used to think that those in positions of leadership recognize that with power comes responsibility.

Now I’m not so sure.