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...the voice of pensioners

Misguided guidance?

17 Aug 2021

Dear LPG readers,

 

I think that many will agree with my thinking when I put it to you that lots of individuals crave important positions that they may or may not eventually assume.

 

By the time we get to an age where reading these pages is of interest, we have lived relatively long lives and I would be surprised to find any person who cannot give an example of someone who had attained a position of influence, management or power that perhaps could have done better with the power they were given.  Even those of us who are not politically-minded, are likely to find it easy to think of one or two people who have attained positions of real influence and who, in the opinion of the people that their decisions affected, could have done a better job during the time that they were in charge.  When you think about it, by the time you get to our age, we have all either met or become aware of quite a few people of power.  

 

I can think of many such people that I have encountered during my life time.   Influencers who, in my opinion, could have steered the bit of the world that they took responsibility for in a better direction during their custodianship, and I am not only talking about our world leaders although there are many examples of the use of misguided power in that sphere. When we think back to our jobs I bet that there was at least one manager who fits the bill with a decision that some later regretted, and I am sure we can all think of a school teacher who, with a better attitude towards the children in their care, could have done a better job with their education.  

 

Power often is put into the hands of some very misguided people who pass that misguidance on to the people that their positions and decisions influence, but once democracy, providence or even circumstance puts them there, only time will tell if we end up regretting their decisions, and who ends up regretting them the most. 

 

Rudy Morgan