The Era of Expansive Leaders is Over

Champ de Mars, by the Eiffel Tower

Photo of me in France, as a young girl, post Ethiopia.
This was taken in June 1973, six months after we arrived in Paris.
I am smiling, but my expression is serious.


Mark Moncrieff sent me this lovely comment on my post Flowers For the Emperor:

Dear Kidist

What amazing photos!

How many people can say they have met an Emperor, let alone held his hand?

Thank you for sharing these photos.

Mark

Upon Hope Blog - A Traditional Conservative Future

I hardly post on myself, and less so on my early childhood years. They were a little magical (that magical land of my birth and childhood, which is forever relegated to memory) and also difficult, since we were abruptly uprooted from the only home we knew when we moved to Paris. It takes a lot to rebuild a new life, even for young children. That is why I don't blame immigrants for their desire to revive the country they knew in the new country they've entered. And that is why I tell them to "go back," especially those immigrants (e.g. Ethiopians) with little affinity to the western cultures of America or Canada.

I met, or rather I saw, the Emperor another time, a little earlier on. We were driving back from the countryside after a brief holiday, when his car, and entourage, drove by us. We stopped our car, as was customary, and required, and we went out of the car to bow (greet) him. Someone from the entourage recognized my father. And I was given a gold medallion.

I think the era of emperors is over. It is complicated, the anointing of leaders, the homage given them, and the way they're allowed to lead. Perhaps people want less ostentatious leadership now, preferring to "bow" to less imposing leaders, like the heads of their companies or work places. And they want less formal leaders like fathers, or media personalities.

People still need leaders. I don't know how we will maneuver our modern era's dislike of leaders. Perhaps what we need is a more Godly world. If we believe in God, and that he is our leader, everything else should fall into place.

I'm reviewing various articles on George Washington, and his dissociation from the British as a way to release Americans from this burden of adulation, and how modestly, and humbly, he took on his role as the leader of the newly forming country. I think he formed America. He was the quintessential leader, where his presence in history resulted with the shape and essence of a whole country. But, I think that he genuinely wouldn't believe this, and that he was only performing his duty.

About George Washington, a leader and father, Lawrence Auster said this:

On the invisibility of Washington in America, I think this is a major factor in our loss of national identity. He is the largest and most important (as well as the most interesting as far as I’m concerned) figure in our history. For Americans (including conservatives) to know next to nothing about him, the father of our country, is a mark against us. It is as though someone knew and cared nothing about his own father, who just happened to be one of the greatest men who ever lived. There’s something seriously amiss here.

Washington tried to be a father to John Parke Custis, the son of his wife Martha. But he was disappointed by this young man, and:

...betrayed the exasperation of a hard-working man coping with a spoiled and rich boy. [Ron Chernow. Washington: A Life. P. 156]

Chernow writes about Washington's bid for presidency:

As his name was bruited about for president, Washington as caught in an excruciating predicament. Merely to broach the topic, even in strict confidence with friends, might seem to betray some secret craving on his part. As he later confessed to Hamilton, he dared not seek advice: "For situated as I am, I could hardly bring the question into the slightest discussion, or ask an opinion, even in the most confidential manner, without betraying, in my judgment, some impropriety of conduct."...

Washington had to undergo this ritual of spurning the proffered crown [of the presidency as introduced by ...Hamilton]. "On the delicate subject with which you conclude your letter, I can say nothing," Washington replied. "For you know me well enough, my good Sir, to be persuaded that I am not guilty of affectation when I tell you, it is my great and sole desire to live and die, in peace and retirement, on my own farm...while you and some others who are acquainted with my heart would acquit, the world and prosterity might probably accuse me of inconsistency and ambition." So among those whose opinion Washington considered was posterity. He portrayed himself as paralyzed by indecision an referred to the "dreaded dilemma of being forced to accept or refuse" the presidency. Whenever he mused about the problem, he told Hamilton, he "felt a kind of gloom upon my mind."...

Hamilton contended that Washington's refusal to become president would "throw everything into confusion." This was what Washington yearned to hear: that overwhelming necessity demanded that he make the supreme sacrifice and serve as president...

The public clamor for Washington to become president arose from his eroism, his disinterested patriotism, and his willingness to surrender his wartime command. Another, if minor factor, was his apparent sterility and lack of children, which made it seem that he had been divinely preserved in an immaculate state to become the Father of His Country. In March 1788, in listing the arguments for electing Washington, the Massachusettes Centinel include this one: "As having no son - and therefore not exposing us to the danger of a hereditary successor."This was a plausible fear at a time when monarchs routinely made dynastic marriages and when people worried that European powers would subvert the new republican government...To sway Washington to run, Gouverneur Morris slyly alluded to his childless state: "You will become the father to more than three millions of children." Washington: A Life. Ron Chernow. Pp. 548-550.

The sad family affair with his step-son Custis notwithstanding, Washington became a father, after all.

Leaders who aspire for excellence, understand the burden of their responsibility. Washington's particular character also made him anxious. But, his humility in front of his ordeal was perhaps his greatest strength, which enabled him to build, and preside over, the largest country in the world, yet in many ways, the most humble.


George Washington as a young boy. "Father, I cannot tell a lie: I cut the tree."
Engraving by John C. McRae from a painting by G. G. White.

More information on the engraving:

By: John C. McRae, act. 1850-1880
George Gorgas White (1835-1898) (after)
John C. McRae (act. 1850-1880) (engraver)
"Father, I Can Not Tell a Lie: I Cut the Tree."
John C. McRae, New York: 1867
Engraving, uncolored
14.75 x 21.5 inches image
19.75 x 26 inches overall

Please excuse my lack of humility in placing George Washington's image (and story) with mine. But, juxtaposing my ordinariness with his greatness would likely be to his approval.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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