“For Wales…it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world…but for Wales.”
—Sir Thomas More to Richard Rich, A Man for All Seasons
There are no more giants in our world.
I’ve had this in my head since last night, reinforced after watching (thanks to my new cable package) the sublime 1966 film A Man for All Seasons, to which I was introduced long ago in 11th grade…and revisited during my public administration courses in university. Sir Thomas More: in the hands of playwright Robert Bolt, he is a man of profound intelligence, morals, and principles. He is a leader who inspires, who awes, and who left a legacy that mere words can’t encapsulate.
Such men don’t exist anymore…not in government. Not in leadership roles.
As I watched this film…as I contemplate the recent behaviour of our Prime Minister…as I watch the continuing saga of an American President fumble his way to historical damnation…I worry more and more that there will be no further men or women – not in my life time – to rescue us from our oubliette of leadership mediocrity.
Some people tell me that we don’t need giants. Some people tell me we don’t need visionaries, heroes, or legends…
To hell with that! We need such people more than ever.
Without such people, we are less than the sum of our humanity. Without such people, there are no dreams, no ambitions…only pettiness. Bitter, pointless, destructive pettiness. Obsessions with party politics…rivalries that become hateful and poisonous…destructive, slanderous attack ads…this is what our leaders concern themselves with? What in God’s name are these people thinking? Is THIS what they see as inspirational?
Where are the MacDonalds, who fashioned a nation out of steel and sweat? Where are the Lauriers, who filled a nation with immigrants who dreamed as he dreamed? Where are the Trudeaus, who cemented a nation’s conscience through a charter & sheer force of will?
They’re gone…and I’m not sure we will see their kind again. And if I turn my thoughts to the American situation…there would be no end to this lament.
If Sir Thomas More was a contemporary of this time, he would mourn what our leaders have lost…as I mourn at this very moment. I certainly hope that I’m proven wrong…but as provincial and federal elections loom, I wonder what it is that any politician and candidate can possibly offer the electorate? In a day and age when scoring cheap political points in the House of Commons is more important that developing greatness in our nation…when smear and counter-smear are what our leaders resort to as a method of communicating with Canadians…what kind of salvation could possibly exist in the short term?
The giants have gone. The Great Ones have passed beyond the veil…unreachable. Never to be seen again. Just when we need them the most.
