Hello and welcome to this week's edition of CHI the contemporary history intervention the module
that I’m currently teaching The Mess We’re In is about looking at current events and what we can
contribute to their understanding as historians. That's always a risky enterprise and sometimes
it's a painful exercise and it certainly is this week this week's topic is political leaders and
political leadership if you talk about that topic in march 2022 there is just no way to
talk about leaders and leadership without thought about the painful events that are unfolding
in Ukraine - Putin’s war. A war that you just cannot imagine without thoughts about the leaders
now several generations of history students that have been taught that no, great men do not make
history well there is very little greatness in the current war in Ukraine but we certainly
realize that this idea that men don't make history well it has opened our historical imagination but
it also has left a void we talk about political leaders without a clear vocabulary about what we
should do of course we can point out that there are wider contents it's just great man we can
point out that the myth of the strong leader is exactly that that is the book that this author
has written archie brown which basically tells us that no great leaders are not superhumans they are
humans like everyone else and assuming that there are smarter better more clever is just wrong well
maybe that is so but that doesn't help us much as we try to find narratives that work for political
leaders so how do you approach a topic like this well our approach to this week is to go
to the classics to look at Max Weber's essay Politics as a Vocation written in German and
going back to a speech of January 1919 of course we read the English translation that some of the
students were struggling with this is intellectual German hard to translate and well not an easy read
probably but then of course the entire idea of university is to go beyond the comfort zone and
it was certainly an essay that resonated with our students in this essay Max Weber argues that
there are three qualities of a good politician that is passion for a cause it is a feeling of
responsibility and a sense of proportion so the ideal politician has a certain calmness a certain
realism to himself or herself in today's age where politicians can and should be female too
and this idea of a certain calm sober-eyed realistic leadership the same the professional
the knowledgeable person that certainly resonated with the students that I had in class
today they like politicians who know what they're doing who are informed who get knowledge from
professionals who do not think too much about themselves that is one of the arch sins
of the politician according to Weber vanity is what a politician must never strive to be do not
think too much about yourself but think about what you can achieve that's certainly something that
shapes and influences the thinking of today's students this is no longer the type of generation
that needs to be told that leadership can look different than Churchill in fact I specially
asked for whether we need an exorcism of Winston Churchill to talk about leadership today and
was told well Frank that's really things that we've gone for today's students Churchill is
like we know that grand uncle that is just part of the family and still around and somehow
still talked about but really more of an embarrassment than anything that you talk about
leadership and actually put that to the test and I explicitly asked today's
students whether someone would like to stand up and speak in defence of Winston Churchill
that could be your finest hour that's the extremes to which I went but nobody wanted to speak up and
defend Winston Churchill and please note that this happened
exactly one day after Ukraine’s president Vladimir Zelensky spoke to the House of Commons and
invoked the words of Winston Churchill that is yesterday's talk and yesterday's politician
so far so good but then we kept talking and kept thinking about Max Weber and turned out that
maybe this sober realistic approach the sense of proportion the feeling of responsibility
well maybe that came down to a type of politician that well was a bit lifeless
a bit too cool too clinical didn't we end up with the type of politician that is a mere plumber
in the grand machinery of everyday politics isn't there something more to the politician isn't there
stagecraft an element of staging of acting out shouldn't there be a political a real character
behind the politician these were concerns that were raised today's student generations wants a
certain sober approach a certain realism but it definitely does not want politicians straight
from central casting there should be a personality in there a character in there not too much but it
is certainly a requirement for political leaders in the 21st century it was interesting to listen
to the names that came up in today's discussion a very prominent name was Jacinda Ardern the prime
minister of New Zealand young female and a mother Kamala Harris was mentioned and Sarah Palin was
mentioned and the latter probably did not come up because her political positions to the extent that
she has them really struck a nerve but because well our panopticon of political leaders is still
exceedingly male and will probably take several generations until our visions our ideas our
visual impression of the political class resemble the society that we live in in its full diversity
so as we talk about the states when we talk about a role that is probably more male than healthy
of course students are aware that there are other people out there people who like a prime minister
who has written a Churchill biography an adoring one that is what Boris Johnson did as you know and
they know that there are people who fall for Trump who looking at the statesman and the template that
is left is a bit of a farcical re-enactment of statesmanship but it's not just that if
you listen closely today's discussion you realize that the charismatic statement the personality the
individual who takes a country into his or her hands that is not an idea that is gone and as
gone as Churchill is it still there in elements in thoughts in expectations so when we talk about
statesmanship and but about the politicians we talk about something that is still there in
fragments and their expectations not longer alive and going strong but not completely dead either
in other words we talk about leadership we come up in that same void of narration
that I started with no we're no longer writing adoring biographies of political leaders if we
want to be serious historians but listening to today's students became clear well they're much
clearer about the type of leadership that they do not want than about the leaders that they want