>>People of character want to do the right thing. That's all the incentive they need.
>>Leaders can lead them to it.
>>Leadership and character- not a political system- matter, John.
>>Given good leadership, people of character will achieve greatness.
Stirring words and exceptional examples. Meanwhile in all of history, leaders who assume that exceptional attributes are normal attributes, tend to find out the hard way.
That we sing songs or erect statues about remarkable exceptions to this rule, ought to carry a message. Sorry if I'm not inclined to treat the remarkable as the normal; perhaps it's the scientist in me...
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
