Thursday 21 January 2016

BUILT TO LAST

As Africans we must consider the shift in thinking analogous to the shift required to found the United States in the 1700's. Prior to the dramatic revolutions in political thought of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Prosperity of a European Kingdom or Country depended in large part on the quality of the King (perhaps Queen in the case of the United Kingdom ). If you had a good King, then you had a good Kingdom. If the King was a great and Wise Leader, then the Kingdom might Prosper as a result. This later proved to be unsustainable.
Now compare the good King Model frame of reference with the approach taken at the Founding of the United States. The Critical questions at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 was not "who should be President or Secretary of State? Who should lead us? Who is the Wisest among us? Who would be the best King?" NO, the Founders of the Country concentrated on such questions as "What processes can we create that will give us good Presidents long after we are dead and gone? What type of enduring Country do we want to build? On what Principles? How should it Operate? What guidelines and Mechanisms should we construct that will give us the kind of Country we envision? "
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John Adams were not charismatic visionary leaders in the "it all depends on me" mode. No, they were organizational visionaries. They created a Constitution to which they and all future leaders would be subservient. They focused on building a Country. They took an architectural approach. They were clock builders; not time tellers. A Clock of a Republic based on human values and Ideals
‪#‎Then‬!:-A-Republic-Was-BUILD-TO-LAST

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