The Uncertainty of Questions –

As the World Yearns for Answers

Can uncertainty be a mark of great leaders?

Most people would be certain of the answer – NO.

We want our leaders to be calm, assured, fixed in their direction, informed of their courses through stormy seas or calm paradisical bays, capable of directing counselors’ debates toward a righteous goal, stalwart as a commander in the field leading with sword held high and pointing to the enemy.

“We,” by the way, does not simply apply to “exceptional” Americans – this is generally a human trait, informed through the millenia. It is as true of barbarians swarming down the Thracian Plain to found Macedon, and centuries later spawn Alexander the Great, as it is of Iraqis today squabbling, and bombing, in the rubble of their once-great nation.

Yet great leadership always begins with questioning. It always begins with uncertainty and the search for an understanding. It does not begin with blind passion and blind blundering.

Answers to grand problems must always be preceded by questioning. There is no weakness in questioning, in making attempts that do not succeed, or but partially succeed. Often the greatest victories follow grand defeats. It is not the capacity to demand that marks intelligence, but rather the capacity to learn.

Winston Churchill learned this lesson early in World War II. He came to office with the certainty that Hitler’s Germany was evil, intractable, and must be destroyed. He came to office expressing the certainty that Britain’s strength and resolve would make the result.

But Churchill’s public resolve masked private questioning. He had questioned, and learned the answers to, much of Hitler’s philosophy and resulting policy, in the years before the war. Churchill, however, did not question enough – until the end of the war with the liberation of the death camps, he never quite believed the evidence of mass murder, for example, and thus allowed millions to die when something might have been done to spare those innocents. Across the Atlantic, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt mirrored Churchill.

Closer to the point of the war itself, Churchill’s apparent certainty led to costly disasters because he did not ask questions first. The worst may have been the terrible price of the Dieppe raid in 1942, when Churchill tested the concepts for a later invasion of mainland France. Thousands of mainly Canadian soldiers were killed or captured in that epic failure, because Churchill and his advisors believed that the Germans were weak, physically and morally.

Yet Churchill was a great leader. He had the capacity to learn and to question, when his assumptions were challenged by facts. He gained assurance from his lessons, and he took his lessons to his nation – with success.

Today the world, and most especially the United States, is again in crisis. And the crisis is a war, of sorts. The nation, and the world, yearns for certain leadership, for reassurance and guidance. It is bitterly divided about the course toward a future that many paint in bleak and sere colors.

Will America, and a globe of now seven billion souls, wander forward into a
wasteland, a “Mad Max” countryside crumbling beneath abandonment, or will the
people join to strive in their customary discord to advance with all people
seeing some hope for a better day?

That is the question.

What is the answer?

Amy,

you assume Cain is guilty, of course, because you are a political hack.

Certainly one can make hay with the hypocrisy card, based on the idea that the GOP is the 'family values' Party.

The short term thrill of accusing the GOP of 'hypocrisy', leaves a bad aftertaste: the logic of your assertion tells us that Democrats are not a Party with family values.

Dont expect hypocrisy from Democrats, expect sex in the Oval Office with interns, gay prostitutes living with Barney Frank , and a Presidential candidate with mistresses on his payroll.

At least they arent hypocrites!

Amy......we learned how to forgive those "indiscretions" from the Dumbocrats!

Bob 1887910 -- I think you might agree that sexual indiscrections, pecadillos, etc., are not exclusive to one party or another. There are ample examples of politicians of both parties behaving in ways that are inappropriate. That's probably why voters want to know more about the hidden lives of people running for elected office. Sometimes the hidden lives leave people open to blackmail, to corruption. Other times, the words politicians use and the positions they espouse are in direct conflict with their own practices. In the instance of Mr. Cain, it is not surprising that someone in business might have "accusations" brought forward. He may not have thought he did anything wrong and he may not have done anything wrong, but he should be sensitive to the issue and how it affects the workplace.

WOW Bob, you claiming the tea people GOP republicans aren't hypocrites is like saying the sky isn't blue. They've been hypocritical on so many issues it would take six months to name them all. Don't you know they take price in being hypocrites.

What are the details of the allegations? I love these accusations wthout any facts to back up the situation . Heck, was he having sex with an intern in his office like our former President? Did he try and get sexual favors for promoting someone to a higher position. Was he taking pictures of his body and sending them to a female? Did he make a compliment to the lady who took it wrong? What is the real level of indiscretion as you bloggers like to generically term this? What does it really have to do with Cain's being a qualified black man who is doing so well in the polls. Cain's assent in the polls is probably scaring the hell out of the Obama Administration and the Democrats. Is all the accusation really important in the grand scheme?

Wonder what "less than truthful " interview they were referring to on Monday?

Oops, hit button before adding, he had serveral.

DBO -

Dead on the mark, as always.

Cain is in denial both to himself and everyone else. He absolutely, without question, knew about the allegations, the company's internal investigations, and the results. There are laws, and standards of business practice, covering how such claims are treated, and he himself said yesterday that the company HR and legal staff handled the matter. They are required to eventually sit down with him and report the outcomes.

And because such investigations occur, businesses know whether there is enough meat in the claims to avoid lawsuits by paying up. The association paid up.

Cain lies.

Herman "grabby ass" Cain

Please nominate this guy..................

Amy - you are so correct, looks like the party of family values has finally been found out! They only value it of they can own it, including people. Yes, I do believe Cain is guilty (especially if he has that much regard for a man who took his mistress to his wife's hospital bed to have her sign divorce papers!), no woman would put her self front and center for the kind of circus that is made when she says a man is guilty of sexual harrassment - just ask Anita Hill! And all the good old boys always stick together - can you say "BUBBA"? Regardless of your race or what part of the country you are from, Bubba is always Bubba and Bubba is always bad. Harressing women sexually or any other way is one of the ways bubba spends his time. I know all about bubba, I've lived in bubbaland all my life!

"no woman would put her self front and center for the kind of circus that is made when she says a man is guilty of sexual harrassment - just ask Anita Hill."

So women never give false allegations? Women do not lie?

If you believe that , then you must support putting "bubba" Bill Clinton in prison for life, for rape, based on the statements of Juanita Broderick, or Paula Jones.

"especially if he has that much regard for a man who took his mistress to his wife's hospital bed to have her sign divorce papers!"

Newt Gingrich had affairs while married, his behaviour was bad; but the Left's smears about his divorce papers being served to his dying wife in the hospital are absurd lies.

He and his wife were discussing divorce while she was being treated for cancer. His wife survived the cancer.

Now an added bonus smear, you say Newt took his mistress to the hospital. What next, did he serve the papers in the operating room while she having surgery?

Dejavu all over again. The naieve Cain w/ Nyewt as his Cheney (puppet master). eewww

I disagree, DA stalker. None of us knows if something inappropriate took place. What we know is that while he was head of the restaurant association, there were two "accusations" of sexual harassment filed. They were investigated, the restaurant association resolved the issue by terminating employment and settling with the two women involved. The resolution included some sort of clause asking that parties not discuss the issue. Where Mr. Cain is wrong is in not simply stating those facts. By wondering who released the information, by saying that there's a "witch hunt" going on... both of those things keep the story alive.