A Renaissance in Social Leadership

I actually wrote and posted this article in 2009, but I felt that it was a good time to take another look.

 

In Lee Iacocca’s book Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, he strikes a poignant cord—with all of these problems we are facing, where is the outrage?

And now that he mentions it, where the heck are all of the leaders?

Why is no one other than “beltway fever” politicians putting forth answers, and bad ones at that.

Why are we all just standing around waiting? And what are we waiting for?  Where are the ordinary men and women who are the legacy of this great nation?  The Sergeant Yorks, the Mr. Smiths, the Rosa Parks’, the Preston Tuckers and the adherents of Cincinnatus?

Where are the everyday leaders in society, who have the common horse sense to solve these problems?  Whether it be a trillion dollar bail out, or government provided health care or the fall of the dollar or something as simple as living within your means—where is the sound thinking and the “Yankee Ingenuity” America is so famous for?

With all of the resources in our modern society- family, media, community, business, church, local government and education, we should have at least a few really good solutions being discussed and promoted from every tavern, small business, restaurant, board room and dining room table.

I study history, and I have to tell you, it doesn’t look good.  Historically, no nation (outside of the city-state called  Nineveh) has ever noticed their own folly in real time.  We are no exception.

Like other nations from the past, we either assume that we are smarter than the last civilization who tried to borrow their way out of debt (or dig their way out of a hole) or we are so ignorant that we don’t have any idea what is happening at all.  Either way, our existing course adds up to a really bad time.

So I will take my own admonition and offer a solution, one that I believe has been the salvation of this nation many times in the past and is likely to be the hope for us now.  I call it A Renaissance in Social Leadership. It is generally agreed upon by historians that the Dark Ages came to an end by the advent of a period known as the Renaissance.

This was a period most known for ordinary people and aristocrats alike, who seeing a need in their families, towns, cities and nations, determined to improve themselves and provide much needed societal leadership through rigorous study and the revival of many of the arts, sciences and knowledge lost during the previous 400 years.

Many of these self-appointed leaders believed that the church and the government (who had been the steward of the people’s hearts and minds for so long) were not fully meeting the needs of the people and determined to do something about it.  Thus began the Renaissance.

Today I believe it is time for such a renewal: a Renaissance of Social Leadership.  I see a vast need for a Renaissance in education, and creativity, and relationships and values.  A Renaissance of Social Leadership means a rejuvenation of individuals, marriages, families, and communities.

A Renaissance of Social Leadership means a rediscovery of the joy of learning for learning’s sake, the development of personal mission and a focus on unleashing your personal genius.
What can one person do? And what does this mean in everyday living? It means that rather than just waiting around to be told what to do, we as citizens need to take a leadership role in our communities.

It means that mothers and fathers need to start acting like the stewards that they really are and can be.

It means that rather than following the media blindly, we should hold them accountable.

It means that we should be actively engaged in our local governments, anxiously following and being involved in our immediate governance.

It means that we should all be pursuing a lifetime education for ourselves and taking an active ownership in the elementary and secondary education of our children.  And demanding a lot more from higher ed.  It means demanding, encouraging and providing businesses in our communities that are beneficial to society and who give back a lot.  And it means living a life style that is in tune with our spiritual selves.

Although the tactics may be complicated, the strategy is simple—we must take our lives back.  We must stand up, assume responsibility and demand that government limit itself, that media stick to reporting the news instead of trying to make it.

We must be loyal husbands and wives, dedicated mothers and fathers.  We must participate in education by example, not coercion.  We must purposefully get out of debt and create family financial stability.

This Renaissance will happen.  But it may have to smolder for decades unless and until you and I decide to do something about it.  No government, no church, no civic organization will or can do it on its own for they are made up of people.  This must be a Renaissance of the people, of marriages, of families, and of communities.  The time is now for each of us to decide—more of the same—or do we step into our god-given greatness and lead?

 

One Response

Krislyn Elliott & Lauren Swanepoel

Krislyn Elliott and Lauren Swanepoel act more like sisters than moms as they take really slow walks through the woods together, looking at and taking pictures of every plant they see & wishing they could remember their names and uses more thoroughly. They also like concocting herbal teas, salves, tinctures and strange drinks.

Krislyn is from Utah and has loved learning about plants since an unusually cool high school biology teacher took his classes on neighborhood botany walks. She has always been fascinated and constantly amazed at the power and beauty of plants.

Lauren is from South Africa, she and her family emigrated to Utah almost 10 years ago. They have fallen in love with the area and know more about this state & the great places to explore here than most Utah natives.

We both feel strongly about taking care of our families with natural methods and the abundant medicine we have growing right around us. We are trying to learn as much as we can about our magical local plants and are looking forward to sharing some of our favorites with you.

William DeMille

Director of Georgic Develeopment

William DeMille is a lifelong vegetable farmer. He studied Horticulture and Agronomy at Northwest Missouri University, Maryville. He holds a certificate in aquaponic engineering and production from Cornell University, NY, and another from GrowHaus Aquaponics in Denver, CO. He also studied soil regeneration and is a graduate of Dr. Elaine’s Soil Food Web School. He is the Director of Georgic Development for The Center for American Legacy Studies.

William is a farm consultant establishing several agricultural startups since 2005 in Missouri, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada and he currently manages 2500 acres of grassland for the Ruby Mountain Foods Company.

His latest venture is a market gardening school called Georgic Revolution where he teaches a 17-week course onsite in Nevada covering soil health and vegetable production without the use of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, etc. and where he operated a soil lab.

William lives with his wife Vernie in the snow capped mountains of Northern Nevada.

Lloyd Nelson

World Renown BD Expert

Lloyd Nelson has been practicing the art of Biodynamic (BD) Agriculture for over twenty years. He is a BD preparation maker, builder, artist, farmer, arborist, BD educator & consultant. He is co-founder of Biodynamic Source – a Colorado based non-profit specializing in high potency BD preparations – and he owns and operates a Biodynamic spray, fertilizer and consultation service. He has worked with small and large scale farms, vineyards, and orchards to transition to sustainable Biodynamic land management and Demeter BD Certification.

Vern Cox, PhD

Educator

Vern Cox is married to Joyce Christensen and they have 8 children. He has 3 earned degrees, a BA in psychology, and both a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. in marriage and family therapy.

He has had a diverse and interesting career that started with the Bureau of Land Management, followed by a stint as a Learning Disabilities teacher, and finally a marriage and family therapist, working his way up to executive director of the High Country Counseling and Resource Centers that served two counties in Wyoming.

Dr. Cox served for several years on the board of a charter school. Dr. Cox remains heavily involved in his community and the home schooling movement.

He has extensive background in marriage and family counseling, having held a number of administrative positions during his first career. He holds a BA in Psychology and both a Masters and PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy. He lives with his wife and several married children on their multi-generation farm in Southern Utah.

Joseph Lofthouse

Educator

Joseph adopted the principles of landrace gardening in response to the harsh growing conditions in a high-altitude, short-season, desert garden. Instead of relying on expensive poisons, labor, and materials to coddle the plants, he encourages genetic diversity, cross-pollination, and survival of the fittest, allowing the plants to adapt themselves to the current and ever-changing ecosystem, thus simplifying gardening and seed saving. Joseph is the author of Landrace Gardening: Food Security Through Biodiversity and Promiscuous Pollination. Joseph loves eating, farming, swimming, hot-springs, sunbathing, bird-watching, running, yoga, leggings, kilts, playing guitar, singing, and living habitually barefoot.

Dan Brooks

Educator

Dan Brooks was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. During his first career, he spent 20 years working in and managing high-end restaurants and golf courses including extensive banquet/special events services and ice sculptures.

For the past 23 years, Dan has been a successful entrepreneur and family business owner in Las Vegas. He and his wife have 4 children and 11 grandchildren. He serves as a trustee for The Center for American Legacy Studies.

Shanon Brooks, PhD

Director

Shanon Brooks is the director of The Center for American Legacy Studies, an institution dedicated to helping families embrace and incorporate the Five American Ideals; Georgics, Liber, Providence, Public Virtue, and Liberty into their lives and communities. America exists because of Americans. Americans are the beneficiaries of a peculiar culture and way of living.

Over the past 75 years, that culture and way of life have been lost. Restore that culture and Americans will rebuild America to once again be worthy of John Winthrop’s 1630 admonition, “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.”

Brooks has been a leader in alternative higher education for over 30 years, and is the author of two books: AMERICAN: Killing the American Dream and A Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens.

Dr. Brooks is a veteran of military service in the United States Submarine Fleet and holds a Bachelor’s degree in business administration, a Master’s degree in education, and a Ph.D. in constitutional law.

He and his wife Julia reside on the 80-acre conference facility of The Center for American Legacy Studies.