Where Are The True Visionaries

In all my years of studying, listening to lectures, researching, lecturing to students and pondering the concepts of administration and leadership I have wondered when people with these great qualities were going to appear. After all Douglas McGregor developed his "theory x - theory y" concept in the 1950's and Maslow identified man's hierarchy of needs 10 years before that. We were teaching these ideas in the 1970's, the 1980's and it is not unusual to find some of these relatively simplistic ideas around in today's management classes. However, after all reading and listening to all of these seemingly great ideas it appears that no one has been paying attention. At least no one with enough clout to make the world sit up and take notice and apparently this is not going to change. And, now it seems there is scientific reason for the world not to change and it isn't just about money. In a National Geographic Special entitled "Killer Stress" on the PBS channel Neurobiologist Robert Sapolskyhas discovered that the higher one is up on the ladder of hierarchy the less chance he or she has of dying of a heart attack. Sapolsky's study of baboons in South Africa confirmed that the lower people are in the hierarchy the greater their chronic stress level and thus the greater their systems are taxed which lowers their imune systems and creates higher blood pressure. This, in turn, leads to those in the mid and lower levels of the hierarchy being subject to more chronic illnesses, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes.
So, despite the fact that, on an intellectual level we may know that our companies can run better, more efficiently, more effectively, and probably with less health care costs the "haves" have chosen to not let it be so to protect not only their bundles of cash, lives of luxury, multiple mansions, and other perks which keep the stress level down, they are also insuring that they maintain the healthy positions on the planet. As long as they can maintain a stranglehold on how the systems are going to work with their clout, spelled dollars, they keep the stress level pushed down to the lower levels. Perhaps that is why the elitism of the Replublican party and their backers seem to always keep pushing against any type of level playing field.
The irony of it all; Sapolsky's study showed an interesting twist which indicated it does not have to be that way. The baboon cohorts he studied were all dominated by the larger more aggresive males who constantly harassed all of the other baboons who were below them in the pecking order. This kept the lower baboons in constant stress and thus they lived much shorter lives than the dominant males. The twist came when he found the very first cohort he had studied 30 years earlier had been decimated by disease. It seems that the cohort had discovered a trash dump left by humans and began raiding it and of course the dominant males had taken over and got most all of the food, which had been tainted by tubercliosis. This in turn killed off the dominant males and left primarily females and the less dominant males. Suprisingly, this cohort began to thrive without dominant members and the other members being more concerned about each other. In fact, as other males joined there cohort they were pushed into the go along get along mode of living. One wonders if baboons can thrive in that kind of environment why can't man.
If you have read this far and haven't fell asleep you you may be wondering ... WTF. Well here it is; It seems that we get two kind of leaders in this country. One fits the mold of the past administration who are saying one thing but are pretty well winking directly in your face so you know they are lying and you can't do anything about it. They are those that say we are the greatest country in the world, but who have never lived anywhere else. They don't care about facts and truth, they only get them irritated. Kind of like Iran. You remember. Anyone who questioned the last administration was a traitor.
Then there are the other kind. Someone like the present administration. Prior to taking office they have their hearts and minds in the right place but they run into those whose loyalty remains with the similarities of the dominant baboons. People like Obama had a good plan but he finds that the true terrorists are not always the ones with bombs and guns but those with money and media access to a fearful block of citizen blockheads. In the old days the establishment would have called them rabblerousers but now the old establishment are the rabblerousers. They have just enough brainless, greedy, power hungry, or all of the above mouth movers to keep people fearful. So the visionary of the campaign who sees the greatness of the of the future so clearly over the horizon suddenly begins to run into the haze drifting out of the smoke fill rooms of the wheeler dealers and the nay sayers trying to protect their power, money, and yes; their health.