Where have all the leaders in our world gone? To answer this question, it is first necessary to deal with the confusion surrounding pioneers, explorers and leaders. There is a tendency to think that these concepts are somewhat interchangeable. They are not. A good explorer may not be a good pioneer may not be a good leader because each situation has a different set of priorities and each operates in a different environment.
An explorer is one who ventures out into the unknown to find what is out there. The explorer is not particularly concerned about balancing realities -- only how to get from one reality to another and back again. An explorer must be able to stop, change directions and explore for a route down a cliff without being knocked off the cliff by the relentless momentum of herds of followers. Once an explorer finds something of value to his home land, the explorer returns home with word of his discoveries.
Like the explorer, a pioneer ventures into the unknown. However, the pioneer's goal is to learn enough about the unknown to become a part of the wilderness so the wilderness becomes their home. A pioneer generally adapts to the wilderness environment by carving out their own niche in the wilderness. Like the explorer, a pioneer may have few, if any, companions because a pioneer's survival may at times rely upon the ability to quickly break camp and move on to a new niche.
Once a pioneer's efforts focus more upon conquering the environment rather than adapting to it, a pioneer might no longer be considered a pioneer. Rather he becomes but one individual citizen of a larger settlement that evolves to be known as a society. In order to survive, a society relies upon a leader's guidance to respond to changes in the civil environment and to move in some direction to correct or adjust to the complexities of a denser population of individuals. A leader of a society cannot take the risks of the explorer or pioneer without being crushed by the masses following closely at his heals.
There are basically two types of leaders, each of equal merit but different value, depending upon the situations presented by the society they lead. Every society is made up of various collectives with varying perspectives and interests, each moving in its own direction within the larger society. There are two basic types of leaders for any society, each with a different way of leading a society.
"Horizontal Leaders" are those who are able to adjust and compromise the tensions and frictions that naturally exist as the various collectives move about within society. The horizontal leader's foundation is generally based upon their wisdom and experience in dealing with one or more collectives. They are generally not risk takers and are not likely to lead society to new horizons. The primary goal of horizontal leadership is to wield the power of compromise so that everyone can just get along.
"Vertical Leaders" are those who are able lead the existing collectives and/or society to new environments and horizons that benefit the general welfare of all within a society. Since it takes more imagination to conceive of a path that is attractive and adaptable to a majority of individuals and collectives in a society, the vertical leader is generally one born of innate ability. Vertical leaders are a rare type of leader in the public scene. Indeed, most may find their calling in private enterprise where they may use their abilities within the confines of the limited society of the industry they work in to move that society or industry forward to new horizons. Bill Gates might be considered such a leader.
Rarer still, are those leaders able to be called both vertical and horizontal leaders. Unfortunately, there is scarcely time in any one individual's life to be able to develop the skills of both types of leadership. In most respects, this type of leader can now only be found in mythology. However, there are some notable exceptions. One such exception occurred in the unique circumstances encountered by our nation's Founding Fathers. Most of the foundation of their successful leadership was based in promotion of liberty, self reliance and individual cooperation over the power of collectives. They were able to lead society in both vertical and horizontal planes.
The uniqueness of the Founding Father's situation was that they were brought into power by the collective effort of many individuals to throw out the ruling collective. After securing their liberty, most in the revolution returned to the struggles of pioneering individuals adapting to the evolving civilization of their democratic republic. In our contemporary modern life, the power of the individualism to rise up behind a great leader who might take our society and the nation to greater heights has been constipated by the collective political power of special interest politics and a media that feeds on special interest perspectives over individualism.
The question might be asked, have we reached a similar point in time where individuals are being swamped by the oppression of various collectives in our civilization that are largely beyond individual control? These collectives frequently have little or no vision beyond the boundaries of their own collective. Isn't it perhaps time to enhance and restore the innate power of the individual in our society so that humanity can look beyond the partisan, religious and philosophical bickering of our various collectives toward a greater good for all individuals?