Cracking wise

I come from a family that gives books as gifts. Every Christmas and birthday I can count on getting at least one or two. Some will be chosen because the giver knows I like the subject or author, but my children have become adept at finding books they find hilarious though the authors did not intend them to be marketed as humor. This year I was given "The Leadership Genius of George W. Bush." Published in 2003, authors Carolyn B. Thompson and James W. Ware set out "to analyze Bush's style and uncover what he does that makes him so successful." They even compared him to Moses.

Five years down the road, the only similarity I see between Bush and Moses is that neither of them made it to the Promise Land. It is a sobering lesson to realize how different a person or situation can look with the passage of just a little time.

I have a hunch that Carolyn Thompson and James Ware were not so much trying to make Bush look good or analyze his leadership style as they were selling themselves to book readers and potential clients in the huge consulting industry that lives off corporations. People in this industry have to convince business leaders that they are wise and can teach their students how to be wise leaders themselves. They are paid very handsomely to teach managers and executives to be geniuses like George W. Bush.

President Bush was popular with the public when the book was written so he became a vehicle for illustrating what they thought they knew about leadership. I think it was less a serious analysis of Bush and more an excuse to demonstrate the wisdom of the authors. It would make money for them and attract clients to their consulting businesses.

I confess to a deep and abiding suspicion of people who claim they can make the rest of us wiser. I place a high value on wisdom. I am ever on the lookout for people of exceptionally good judgment and maturity. I call them "my Cabinet." The president has his Cabinet, and I have mine. I have limited faith in my intuition or my "gut," as Bush likes to call it. I consult it, but I check its instincts with people who have more wisdom than I do. People who make a living sharing their wisdom with other people make me nervous because I don't trust that they know all that much more than I do. There is something missing in their formulations. I can't quite put my finger on it, but wisdom disembodied from a person is lacking somehow. I guess that is why the great teachers were more likely to pass wisdom onto disciples than they were to simply leave behind a book. There are wise people who have studied the Bible or other sacred texts, but there are foolish people equally knowledgeable about those same texts.

Wise people can be found, but their numbers are not legion, and they tend to be tucked away in odd places. From what I have observed, very few reach high political office. Not that many even make it to the top of religious organizations. What makes people wise is something of a mystery. Some management techniques can be taught, but authentic wisdom is slippery and doesn't yield easily to being reduced to a PowerPoint presentation at a weekend seminar at Hilton Head. The assumption that it can be packaged leads to such nonsense as declaring George W. Bush a leadership genius. He is no such thing, and neither are the authors of this book, and neither am I. It is depressing when you stop and think how difficult are the world's problems and how tiny the chance that any of our leaders will be truly wise. 

However, in addition to some thigh-slapping laughter, this book gave me hope in an odd sort of way. The New Year looks a bit bleak. We haven't adequately addressed a long list of problems that need to be dealt with. I have friends and family going through awful personal problems. But just think how entirely different things can look in a mere five years! You just never know what is going to happen. Life is full of surprises, and some of them turn out to be good in spite of everything. 

Patricia Hunt is a Mary Baldwin College chaplain and Staunton resident.