fandomhigh | Leadership, Thursday, Period 1, Class 3 (9/18/08)

"You're in charge, congratulations," Nathan said. "Now what? Implicit in being a leader is that you have somewhere that you want to go. You have a vision, a goal, and that's what you're leading everyone towards.

"Successful leaders have a solid vision. They know what they want, which helps them figure out how to get it. It also helps you stay on course. If your goal is to see a movie tonight, you know that heading to the beach is not going to help you accomplish that.

"Visions can be adapted, but you have to have one to start with." Nathan looked around. "For today's class you'll work together to start forming one. I've split you all into groups. Imagine that your group has the power to make society be whatever you want it to be. What is it like? What do people eat? Where do they work? Where do they live? What do they do for fun? What is the population like? Be specific. For example, maybe your ideal society includes people who walk instead of using cars. Maybe your society values poets more than sports figures. Use your imagination. Once you have that figured out, try to narrow it down to simple, declarative sentences. As an added bonus, these statements make for good campaign slogans. 'A chicken in every pot' may ring a bell for some of you.

"Good luck. I'm here if you need me."

Groups:

Group One:
Summer Roberts
Jaina Solo
Andros
Andrew Wiggin
Teyla Emmagan

Group Two:
Tabitha-Ruth Wexler
Momoko Akatsutsumi
Meg Powers
Agnes Nitt
Ben Skywalker

Group Three:
Teddy Altman
Dor
Joan Girardi
Bender
Hinata Hyuuga

Group Four:
Lucas Scott
Evey Hammond
Tony Foster
Alex Drake

[ooc: OCD is up! Credit for class exercise goes here]

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"My aunt did that," he said, "and then she was replaced by a venal little Bothan who was more concerned about protecting his home planet and the ones around it to stop a massive invasion. The Senate is dumb. The Senate has always been dumb. There's a reason Palpatine kept it around when he took over--because the Senate didn't notice when he turned them into a dictatorship." He frowned. "They have always been too busy looking after their own pockets."

Ben was just a little jaded.

"Well, I think," Turtle offered, with a small smile at Meg, sensing a bit of a kindred spirit finally, "in this case, the five of us are the chiefs of state. It's a bit modified from the model, but it's not like thirty trillion different voices, or just one. Five, though, and each of us clearly different enough to offer some variety of opinion, but, hopefully, not so different that we can't eventually agree on a compromise beneficial for the people as a whole? Instead of a dumb senate watching our backs, it's each other."

She looked around at her group, hopefully. "Maybe?"

Meg nodded. "That works for me." Later on she'd explain the Bush presidency to Ben and how she understood exactly where he was coming from.

"Right," Agnes agreed. "Although if we're talking three trillian people, that's a bit more than I'm used to dealing with. It probably makes things a lot harder."

Ben nodded. "That's why I'm not exactly racing to the front of the line to run the thing."

"But if we're talking a division of power into five capable," she hoped," entities," Turtle offered, determined to settle on this idea for their structure.

"Then I'm fine with it," Ben said, nodding.

Agnes shrugged. "If we have to be in charge, best we all work together on it." She gave some thought to what she would look for in an ideal society. "Can we all agree on... Fairness, and charity for widows and orphans, and generally staying out of people's business unless they're doing something stupid?"

Such a goody-goody!

Turtle smiled much easier as there seemed to be a consensus around the table. "I'm all for that," she allowed congenially. "Although the next step would have to be deciding what we consider as 'something stupid'."

"Which is how we end up with entire buildings full of laws," Ben said, sounding a little weary. "Because you try to do something that seems self-evident, but there's always someone too stupid to figure out what you meant."

"And there are loopholes," Meg said, shaking her head. "And you need more laws to close the loopholes."

"Last chance to change your mind to a nice, streamlined dictatorship," Ben teased.

"The last president we had thought the same thing," she replied with a look of disgust. "Fortunately he's gone now. Back to Texas to clear some brush."

"You're all so cynical," Turtle observed, shaking her head slightly. "But if everything is properly organized and very carefully considered, it's not that hard to avoid loopholes and the like. You just have to know how to approach the matter and cover all your bases."

"I think maybe you've got it the wrong way 'round," Agnes commented. "Anyone with a head on their shoulders can find loopholes in the rules, if they look for them. And an awful lot of people look for them."

The only way to avoid it was to get someone like Granny Weatherwax always looking over people's shoulders.

Meg snorted. "Yeah, they're called lawyers."

"And you've got one of those!" Turtle said, beaming proudly and pointing to herself in case they didn't realize that she was referring to herself.

"You're a lawyer?" Ben looked confused. "But you're not a droid."

"And you don't look like you've sold your soul to the devil," Meg added.

Turtle shook her head. "You guys are terrible. We're not all that bad! Just look at Mister Petrelli!"

Agnes felt like she ought to contribute something, but wasn't really sure which side to take. "Um... Only some of the lawyers where I'm from are undead monsters?"

One hand covering her face, Turtle's other hand was busy putting her finger on a piece of paper and tapping it a few time. "We're writing it down," she said. "Our society only has good lawyers. Yes, they exist."

She barely refrained from adding a I hate you all.

Momoko was a bit behind. She completely agreed with what was being decided and it seemed as if eerytime she came up with a question, someone else in her group spoke up first. She was obviously in the right group! She waited a moment, then raised her hand.

"Are we going to each have our own territory to run and then come together on issues that affect us all? Or are we going to be one whole and rule everyone equally? Or, say the farmers in the North want something that the city dwellers in the West are against? Are we five going to be the ones who decide all of that, do we let the locals have their own government that we outrank, or do we each have control of an area?"

"I think," Agnes answered, "that we'd better rule as one whole. That way, when we start to bicker amongst ourselves, we don't have our own little armies to back us up."

Leadership, Thursday, Period 1, Class 3 (9/18/08)

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