"The End
Justifies the Means"
(A Leadership
Dilemma)
Dramatis Personae:
Bim: Bim
Keasley
G: Goffy
Fitlam
K: Kaul
Peating
Bim: Hello. I'm Bim Keazley, a federal Opposition politician
with a vision to lead my country to a glorious future, bringing prosperity and
harmony to my people, and securing for Australia a position of respect and
integrity on the World stage.
G: Well, I'm Goffy Fitlam, a great mate and
supporter of Bim and his ideals. In my
time as Prime Minister, I brought about great social changes in this country,
but not by proclaiming idealistic policies that don't have a chance in the
dog-eat-dog political environment, and the atmosphere of fear and division in our
community.
I'm a member of the Fabian Society, which
holds that to succeed at radical changes, you have to do it quietly, a little
at a time, without, as they say, scaring the horses! To do that, you must make a mighty lot of compromises, work in
strategic alliances with people you detest, and not show all your cards at
once. Be patient, work by evolution
rather than revolution. Social
engineering is all the go these days, and it's no game for political whimps! The
end does justify the means!
K: And I'm Kaul Peating, Bim's other ex-Prime
Minister, and his only hope for coming to terms with reality.
He's a great guy, and could make a real
difference to this land, but he's gotta give up his ideals, at least for a
while, and live in the real world. Our
mate Goffy had great ideals, but he couldn't survive on the basis of working
with hippies, Middle-Eastern con-man financiers, greenies and pinkies of every
description. The compromises became
ridiculous for him, and it was just not reasonable, No wonder he was kicked-out.
What you've gotta do is get on with running
the country efficiently. Forget about
your utopian ideals, give people what they want! My working-class supporters just about died when I deregulated
the banks, made deals with Big Business, and snuggled-up to Uncle Sam and his
CIA minders. You can't do business in this world without being mates with the
people who really count! If my mate Bim
can come to terms with that, then he'll go a long way.
It's the outcome that matters. Make people happy. Give them a full
belly.
B: I appreciate your thoughts, but I think you're
both on the wrong track. The world
needs clear, unambiguous guidelines.
Remember our Pontificator friend this morning? He said "A lie is a lie is a lie"! It's so true. Aristotles wisdom still prevails. I believe in taking a moral and ethical framework, a clear vision
to the people. It has four very simple
rules:
Absolute honesty,
Absolute purity,
Absolute
unselfishness
Absolute love for country
and other people
K: Bah-humbug!
You sound just like your father.
And where did all that morality get him - Not to be Prime Minister,
that's for sure! The people will never
understand such goody-goody Miss Two-shoes stuff. "Purity", indeed - What do you mean by that?
G: Well, I know what he means, but not sure that
you can do it in one go. For example,
it might have been a great idea to invade Iraq, kill the baddies, tip out an
evil dictator and grab access to their oil supplies. But you can't just go to
the people with that message. Why,
there're lots of evil dictators - people would demand that we do the same in
Burma, in North Korea, in Zimbabwe, Angola, in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Tibet,
Iran ... And what about in China, and Israel?
What about if Uncle Sam decided to knock you off your perch?
K: Come on, Goffy, you're waffling as always. What do you mean by "Purity"?
G: Well ...
K: You always start your sentences with "Well
"
G: Well, We're told that we invaded Iraq because
that naughty man Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction ...
K: Ha ha ha
G: ... which were a real and present threat to the
Free World. And he just wouldn't
disarm. No that's something that would
help people become patriotic, and go in there and kick he out. No questions asked. And if the supposed WMD's were never found,
then we could always say "Well, Saddam was a wicked, wicked man - Isn't it
good that we got rid of him? - What are you wingeing about?"
But Bim's high-falutin' ethic of
"Purity" would require that we not only do the right thing, but we do
it for the right reasons.
K: (sarcastically) Aaahhh - How noble!
B: Don't be like that, Kaul. It pays off in the long run. Doesn't matter if the masses understand or
agree with it at the time. Think of
Nelson Mandela Twenty-five years in prison say clearly that Apartheid was wrong
and must be overturned. People said
that he was stupid - It couldn't be done (at least in one lifetime). Now he's arguably the most respected man in
the world. And he didn't have to
compromise his ideals in the meantime.
G: (Impatiently) Well, Yes. Certainly a great
time-binder! But in Australian
politics, you've gotta get the votes.
And you won't get them by promoting absolute values that people don't
understand.
South Africa(1988) is not Australia
(2003).
The issue of
Apartheid(1988) is not the issue of
Children-Behind-Barbed-Wire-in-Detention-Camps(2003)
It's not ethical
to waste your talents, your energies and your opportunities stirring the pot,
only to inflame your critics and end up in a political wasteland.
K: This could go on forever. Let's consult the electorate (gesturing to
the group)
* Bim
here believes that the ethical road in leadership is to live and work and
preach absolute moral values, then hope and trust that you'll gain support and
achieve real social change.
* Goffy's
attempts at social engineering were hardly a great success - Great ideals,
strange compromises, but very little long-term success.
* My
record shows that I never promised any great ideals, but did what had to be
done and brought about useful changes.
No touchy-feely absolutes to worry about, no compromises, but better
outcomes, better time-binding.
What you tink?
ooo000ooo