Walk Like an Egyptian… Lessons in Leadership From the Land of the Pharaohs

“May you live in interesting times” is said to be an ancient Chinese curse. I’m not sure who pronounced it on our generation of earth dwellers, but certainly, these are interesting times! Increasingly, we are being faced with issues that transcend political leanings. The old construct that if you were of one party you felt one way, and if you were of another party you would feel the other way is beginning to crumble at the edges. Issues like the NSA scandal, the Syrian civil war, and our response to terrorism are producing what cannot yet be termed alliances, but certainly surprised alignments that cross party lines. Neocon Republicans increasingly find themselves in sync with progressive Democrats. Liberal Democrats are uneasy bedfellows with libertarian Republicans. With education, party is giving way to ideology in many quarters, and this is just one of the things making our times “interesting”.

One such party crossing issue has been the recent coup d’etat in Egypt, and yes it was a coup. Lessons can be learned from the short lived tenure of Mohamed Morsi on how not to lead a country. Lately it seems we are faced with situations where there seems to be no right side of an issue to come down on. We rejoiced with Egypt bringing democracy to their ancient land, but then, as is often the case in democracies, we were nonplussed by the democratic election of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate. Morsi found the young democracy in Egypt in need of “tweaking”, and proceeded to institute changes to consolidate power in his own hands and weaken his political adversaries. With Morsi’s lurch toward tyranny came a general disregard for the immediate problem facing the Egyptian nation, namely their dismal economy. The response of the Egyptian people to Morsi’s ineptitude in leadership was not to wait for the next election; it was beginning to look like there might not be one; but instead to flood the streets with millions of people in protest. The military, responding to the volatility of the situation, and not willing for Egypt to end up like Syria, made the decision that Morsi had to go. And so there was a military coup, but not in the conventional way of a General taking over the reigns of government, but rather as a recognition that the duly elected leader of the country was moving toward despotism, creating a dangerous mass uprising, and that the country needed a restart in their fledgling democracy.

Both parties come down on both sides of whether this was an appropriate use of military might. It would seem to be an illegitimate overturning of the people’s choice that may, however, have been the only way to undo the disastrous consequences of what turned out to be a monumentally poor choice of a leader, and to snatch the young democracy from the jaws of tyranny. But despite the crisis of the situation, is that a decision that the military should be making in what is supposed to be a free society? Remember that Adolph Hitler was freely elected, but few have condemned the plots to violently remove him as his madness proceeded to tyranny, conquest, and genocide. Our own Declaration of Independence contends that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish any form of government that becomes destructive to the idea of governance by consent of the governed, and it is seldom without the cooperation of the military that this can be implemented. Bad leaders make for bad choices.

Morsi’s brief stint serves as a more extreme caricature of the same poor leadership exhibited by our own President. Campaigning being his strong suit, he has fallen into the same error so many make in understanding our form of government. They see the election as a sort of political Superbowl, may the strongest team win, and to the victor go the spoils; the trophy for winning is that you get to call the shots for the next four years. That’s not leadership, that is conquest, and it’s that kind of thinking that divides nations and creates war. “We won… get over it.” True leadership involves not simply occupying the nation with your minions to enforce your own ideology, but to foster unity with those not of your political stripe, sometimes even at the cost of deferring your agenda where there is clearly no consensus. The structure of individual states with wide variations of ideology operating under the lenient hand of a meek, though not weak, central government has been largely abandoned in favor of a “winner takes all” mentality, whereby democracy has become two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner. Without consensus, a free country is impossible to govern. We saw this with Prohibition, and are beginning to see it with Obamacare. Morsi learned that winning is not enough. Our leaders will also learn that lesson, as the governed enabled by the growth of technology, learn the power of the masses to simply say “We won’t”.

IMHO: Leadership is a rare commodity among mankind. Among the throngs of bullies, tyrants, and failures there occasionally arises a true leader. They have not found such a one in Egypt, and it has been awhile since we have had one here. True leaders bring with them freedom, but with that freedom, the virtue to make right choices. The enforcement of even good and wise choices via tyrants or the tyranny of the majority is not freedom, and it is not leadership. Leaders bring peace and unity by moving to the front of the battle with courage, and showing the right way to go to a people who generally want to go the right way. You can’t lead from behind, you can only shove. We, as all the world, are in desperate need of good leaders, people who are worthy of our consent. We need Washingtons, Lincolns, and Churchills; not Wieners, Spitzers, and Clintons. Are we, like Diogenes, forever condemned to the cynicism of a perpetually fruitless search? The greatest leaders seem in the Creator’s wisdom to arise at the times of greatest need. Dear Lord, our need is great.