The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Great leaders - born or made? > Comments

Great leaders - born or made? : Comments

By Souchou Yao, published 3/1/2007

Morality and the peril of leadership - the Confucian perspective.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. All
This is long and unclear. What exactly is the claim, argument or insight here?

Is this saying that great leaders are special? Or is it that special leaders or great. Or is it that special/great leaders are liked by the masses - and have an ethical/moral viewpoint.

This all seems rather circular. Tautological.

Please clarify.
Posted by WhiteWombat, Wednesday, 3 January 2007 7:24:01 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Yes, I agree WW. I am unsure of what the nexus of this article is? Mother Theresa, after all, though a good woman, was hardly a "leader", and Mao Zedung, though undoubtedly a charismatic leader, is the reason the average young Chinese person to-day has little or no knowledge of Confucianism. It would be crass and illogical to argue that the writer's views on Confucianism were not valid: just as it would be to argue that the tenets of Buddhism or of many other philosophies are not theoretically inspiring and up-lifting. But in practice surely Confucianism was one of the factors which led to China's history being represented in many Chinese texts as a spiral: it neither advanced nor receded but held the country in stasis for centuries.

My conclusion, upon finishing this article was that, given the realities of to-days economic/political climate, if what is needed is the kind of leader described therein, there is no hope for us at all. Surely this can't be what was meant?
Posted by Romany, Wednesday, 3 January 2007 8:19:26 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy