Paralysis of leadership is due in part to the unseen grip of the special interests.
John W. GardnerRead
It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the difficulty individuals face in feeling accountable for the actions of a large, distant government.
John W. Gardner emphasizes the challenge of individual responsibility in the context of a vast governmental system that operates away from the direct oversight and influence of its citizens. This feeling of detachment can lead to apathy and disengagement, as people struggle to see their roles in influencing policies and outcomes that seem far removed from their personal lives.
Themes
ResponsibilityGovernmentIndividualsApathyAccountability
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on the role of citizens in democracy.
More from John W. Gardner
All quotes βMore and more Americans feel threatened by runaway technology, by large-scale organization, by overcrowding. More and more Americans are appalled by the ravages of industrial progress, by the defacement of nature, by man-made ugliness. If our society continues at its present rate to become less livable as it becomes more affluent, we promise all to end up in sumptuous misery.
John W. GardnerRead
Storybook happiness involves every form of pleasant thumb-twiddling; true happiness involves the full use of one's powers and talents.
John W. GardnerRead
Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse qualities. There are quiet leaders and leaders one can hear in the next county. Some find strength in eloquence, some in judgment, some in courage.
John W. GardnerRead
We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure. It is a powerful obstacle to growth. It assures the progressive narrowing of the personality and prevents exploration and experimentation. There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure-all your life.
John W. GardnerRead
I think that all human systems require continuous renewal. They rigidify. They get stuff in the joints. They forget what they cared about. The forces against it are nostalgia and the enormous appeal of having things the way they always have been, appeals to a supposedly happy past. But we've got to move on.
John W. GardnerRead
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I ask the rights to pursue happiness by having a voice in that government to which I am accountable.
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However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
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