Friday Feature: Lost and Leadership
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These numbers are like an ID tag for Lost fans, a string of seemingly random digits that has brought them together- not unlike the connections expirienced by their favorite charectors. Lost, a complex story of fate, belief, humanity, and leadership, tells the tales of survivors of an Oceanic flight crash on a mystereous island with a hidden history. Early in the show, leaders are idenified by the survivors. Jack Shepard is the fast leader after the crash, a doctor with a strong personality.In the beginning, Jack is portrayed as infallible, but it is quickly obvious that Jack is as flawed as anyone else, and possibly more so. In fact, all the leaders of Lost have massive, even fatal flaws. John Locke, onetime leader of the Others, is led to believe in a higher purpose for himself, and his resulting quest for self-discovery ultimately leads to his untimely death. Ben Linus, another powerful Other, spent a lifetime taking often immoral actions in order to secure a future for his people. None of these men are perfect- far from it. And yet, they all are the most respected and powerful humans on the island.
In America, we like to see our leaders as indestructible, perfect. Even more so, we like to view our country and its actions as infallible. This is why we turn a blind eye to atrocities we commit, why we refuse to admit to times when our federal offices or our military act against American or international law, and why we attempt to ignore mistakes made by leaders we respect. It is important that we see gaps in our nation's and our leader's ethics if we wish to mitigate our errors and grow beyond them. While we tend to note egregious mistakes made by our leadership, we often brush over ethical ambiguities.
"If we can't live together, we're going to die alone." This is the ultimatum given by Jack during the first season of Lost. Jack is able to lead and to embolden the people he has in his charge, regardless of his flaws. This is the other lesson from Lost- we cannot expect our leaders to be perfect, and we cannot limit their existence to perfection, rather, we must accept moral leadership when it comes to us.
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These numbers are like an ID tag for Lost fans, a string of seemingly random digits that has brought them together- not unlike the connections expirienced by their favorite charectors. Lost, a complex story of fate, belief, humanity, and leadership, tells the tales of survivors of an Oceanic flight crash on a mystereous island with a hidden history. Early in the show, leaders are idenified by the survivors. Jack Shepard is the fast leader after the crash, a doctor with a strong personality.In the beginning, Jack is portrayed as infallible, but it is quickly obvious that Jack is as flawed as anyone else, and possibly more so. In fact, all the leaders of Lost have massive, even fatal flaws. John Locke, onetime leader of the Others, is led to believe in a higher purpose for himself, and his resulting quest for self-discovery ultimately leads to his untimely death. Ben Linus, another powerful Other, spent a lifetime taking often immoral actions in order to secure a future for his people. None of these men are perfect- far from it. And yet, they all are the most respected and powerful humans on the island.
In America, we like to see our leaders as indestructible, perfect. Even more so, we like to view our country and its actions as infallible. This is why we turn a blind eye to atrocities we commit, why we refuse to admit to times when our federal offices or our military act against American or international law, and why we attempt to ignore mistakes made by leaders we respect. It is important that we see gaps in our nation's and our leader's ethics if we wish to mitigate our errors and grow beyond them. While we tend to note egregious mistakes made by our leadership, we often brush over ethical ambiguities.
"If we can't live together, we're going to die alone." This is the ultimatum given by Jack during the first season of Lost. Jack is able to lead and to embolden the people he has in his charge, regardless of his flaws. This is the other lesson from Lost- we cannot expect our leaders to be perfect, and we cannot limit their existence to perfection, rather, we must accept moral leadership when it comes to us.
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