Wounded Leaders
Nick Duffel argues in his article on Wounded Leaders that the political elite’s private boarding schooling educational experience creates a person who has to reinvent themselves. They go onto make poor political decisions that impact on all of the UK population. He writes “As socially privileged children, they were forced into a deal they did not choose: trading an ordinary, home and family-based childhood for the hothousing of entitlement. All boarding children have to survive this.”
7 year old boys are taken from their homes and put in an environments like
Shrewsbury School where they are forced to survive. A traumatic break in attachment has to be survived. But how? They have to create self-reliant pseudo adults as an avatar to present to the world. Empathy, compassion and vulnerability are not on the menu.
Wounded Leaders
Dangerously the boarding school 7 year old boy “has to believe his own self-invention, which is the most dangerous, for it allows him to do anything without conscience.” As adults the little boy inside is put on hold not wishing to appear vulnerable or stupid against a bullying competitive hothouse environment.
Everything is willing to be sacrificed to stay out of trouble. Nothing can be appear to be wrong. A sense of entitlement is created and hard to give up: a compensation for a childhood without love or family.
The effect is that key political decisions are made by people who are unable to relate to them! The impact of policies on people is not important. The only important thing is that 7 year old boarder has to survive. Not to look stupid or vulnerable.
The way the UK is governed needs to change.
Wounded Leaders
Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2014
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Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.