Week-end. Literature is back. Giraudoux wrote his play in 1935. A way to criticize the poor leadership that precipitated the Europeans into World War I. The same leadership that unfortunately was again about to lead the same people into another World War. The play is about leadership and diplomacy. About cynicism. About the way poor leaders manipulate symbols and people. In times of crisis true leaders can change a course that looked irreversible until they step up. This time has come again. Not that we are ahead of World War III. But we are facing gigantic collective challenges. Social and environmental. We can either let a poor leadership play and use them for their own benefit. Or we can address them eye in the eye. And see emerge the true collective leadership required in these extraordinary circumstances. Let’s meditate what Odysseus says to Hector at the end of the play as the war is looming: “Le privilège des grands, c’est de voir les catastrophes d’une terrasse.” Something like: “the privilege of the “rich and powerful” is to see the disaster from their terrace”. They -and we- believe we can remain spectators. Forgetting that when the catastrophe occurs the terrace collapses. And us as well. #marktoplanet
Comments