Waiting for a Wise Man

By Larrey Anderson

Human beings have an abstruse and potentially dangerous impulse. We yearn to be led by a wise man. The human desire for an enlightened ruler -- whether that leader is spiritual and/or secular -- is ancient; it is widely shared; and it is a seemingly ineluctable human dream. We need to wake up from our reveries for a political sage. It is time to stop waiting for a wise man. The fact that most people need to be led has been known for millennia. About 2,500 years ago the sophist Protagoras claimed, "The masses of people notice nothing -- they simply echo what their leaders tell them"[i]. The word "sophist" comes from the Greek for "wise man." Protagoras, a self-proclaimed sage, made this statement in private in a meeting with leading Athenian intellectuals and wannabe politicians. In publishing Protagoras' claim, Plato exposed the issue of the need of the masses for the leadership of a wise man to the masses. At that moment the issue became public and, thus, political. .... (Read Full Article)