The Top Ten Greatest Fictional Statesmen

We deserve better.  We should have demanded better.  We should have had higher expectations from those who asked to be entrusted with crafting laws, with the public treasury, with judicial integrity, with command of the military.

Let's stop the bullcrap and be honest.  I mean, SERIOUSLY honest.  With an election looming in the next few days here in the United States, we have been incrementally conned and conditioned to have practically nobody to cast a vote for other than smooth-talkers and snake-oil salesmen.  Incumbents and challengers ready willing and able to sell their soul for a little scrap of power... and fools that we are, we seem only too willing to give it to them.  Sometimes I wonder if most of us like being treated with such contempt by those who allege to serve we the people.

In short: we have a surplus of politicians and too damned few statesmen.

What is a statesman?  Someone, man or woman, who puts the good of those they serve above his or her own desires and ambitions.  True statesmen are not politicians.  Politicians care only for the trappings of office and don't care how they get it.

For the past several years I have had a rule by which I abide when it comes to casting a ballot.  It is very simple: if a candidate's campaign creates or sanctions even one negative ad aimed at an opponent, I do not vote for that candidate.  To me it indicates that the candidate is a politician, not a statesman.  Statesmen will hold up under scrutiny per their own virtues.  They don't want or even need to attack the virtues of others, even if said virtues are lacking.

Right now, my ballot for next week has some pretty wide open spaces.

How has it come to this?  Could it be that... we as citizens have forgotten what a statesman is supposed to be?  That we can no longer recognize the qualities that make them leaders and not mere "politicians"?

Maybe.  In fact, I would dare say, unfortunately... yes, we have.

So if sincere and selfless and capable leadership cannot be found in our real world, perhaps a look toward movies, books and television is in order.  Assembled here are the top ten men, women, and other beings from fiction who best exemplify the various aspects of statesmanship, along with the qualities for which they are best known.

Who are they?  Find out after the jump!

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Needed: Humble leaders, not confident ones

Michael Hyatt has written an intriguing essay on leadership over at his blog. As Hyatt puts it, we are wrong to seek leaders who are confident in their own abilities and knowledge, when instead we should find leaders who can and will admit that they don't have complete understanding and are far more humble because of it. Hyatt cites the example of Joseph Hooker during the American Civil War...

"Fighting Joe Hooker" was a major general in the Union army. He was exceedingly smart. He set up an elaborate spy network and knew more about the Confederate army than the Confederates did themselves.

Hooker found himself squared off against General Robert E. Lee in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near the village of Chancellorsville. Because of the detailed intelligence he was able to gather, he positioned his troops in such a way that he had Lee surrounded on three sides. In addition, his troops outnumbered Lee's two-to-one.

Hooker was absolutely confident that he would destroy Lee's army. Lee's only choice was to retreat to Richmond. The night before the battle, Hooker told his troops, "God Almighty could not prevent us from victory tomorrow." He was bold, audacious, and (as it turned out) overly confident.

According to Gladwell, more information does not guarantee better decisions. In fact, we tend to overestimate the value of additional information. He cited the work of Dr. Stuart Hopkins, who did extensive research on this topic. What he discovered is that when people are given more information, they grow more confident in their ability to solve the problem. However, their actual results are not better. Sometimes, they are worse.

Overconfidence is "the disease of experts." They think think they know more than they actually do know. In fact, they make mistakes precisely because they have knowledge. This is what happened on Wall Street. This is what also happened with Hooker.

When Lee realized he was surrounded on three sides, he began moving his troops south. Hooker assumed Lee was retreating to Richmond. His men relaxed. Some of them started celebrating. What they didn't realize was that Lee was flanking their position.

Hooker was arrogant and over-confident. He didn't prepare for this possibility. Even though Lee was surrounded on three sides and outnumbered two-to-one, he was able to defeat Hooker. It was a stunning and demoralizing defeat for the Union army.

The lesson is this: In times of crisis, we think we need leaders who are bold and confident. This is completely wrong-headed. What we really need are leaders who are humble and willing to listen.

I have been thinking much the same for quite some time now. It seems that every aspect of our culture, from government to business to even the realm of religious worship, is plagued with people demanding that we give them extra heed because "we know better". And far more often than not, we take them at their word.

All we get are "leaders" too proud to admit that they've made mistakes... and we keep giving them more power because we're too proud to admit that we were wrong to install them in leadership positions in the first place.

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I have a new letter in today's News & Record

"Leaders at all levels seek power ahead of justice".

I won't quote the entire letter here but this part of it warrants special mention:

I live in Rockingham County. For months I've watched elected officials in my own backyard trample on the Constitution: from a school board member suing citizens for practicing the right to petition, to a city council banning new churches.

I'll give you three guesses who is being referred to here :-P

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New vlog entry: America needs new heroes

Another in what is threatening to become a regular series of "vlog" entries. This one was inspired by today's vote in the Senate which killed amnesty for illegal aliens... for now. But in this I also go into how America has a serious need for a new generation of leaders to take the reins from the ones who have been exploiting her for too long:

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