Seth Godin: Leadership

Seth Godin writes about Leadership.

Leaders create the conditions where people choose new actions.

The choices are voluntary. They’re made by people who see a new landscape, new opportunities and new options.

You can’t make people change. But you can create an environment where they choose to.

Emphasis Mine

Godin is being naive if he thinks people can simply choose to change things if the options are available. He neglects to consider the violence inherent in the status quo. This is particularly naive given that the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre was just observed.

The extreme forms of violence that underpin Capitalism preclude any peaceful changes to the system:

• The Occupation of Palestine
• The blockade of Cuba and Venezuela
• The Syrian intervention
• The attacks on Kurds in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran
• The civil wars in Yemen, and Sudan
• The collapse of Libya

People who benefit from the existing system are unwilling or unable to see the violence that maintains that system. To acknowledge that violence would challenge their idea that they are good people.