“Only able to draw from a shallow well, the choreography of selfish leaders is inevitable and predictable. We will know them first by their strutting, then by their skulking, throughout all time, and in that order.” – Gerald Moose

Two quotes, a world and centuries apart:

– “Noble-minded rulers inhabit the inevitable unfurling of things. They open communities and nourish families. The small-minded aren’t capable of this.” – I Ching – Book of Changes

– “Violence is not confidence, and terror is not mastery.” – Timothy Snyder – “Bloodlands”

When bad things happen because small minds stand in front of large levers, we learn to be wary of what they say. But watch what they do, or better to watch how they move in the world – striding, one might say strutting, filled with what they have misunderstood as being power.

Humans have learned well how to spin what they say, but body language is a different matter. Whatever the size of their lever, power, fortune, rulings, explanations, or “friends”, the body shall speak honestly. One can posture, but one cannot pose poise.

Only able to draw from a shallow well, the choreography of selfish leaders is inevitable and predictable.

We will know them first by their strutting, then by their skulking, throughout all time, and in that order.

The difference between “inevitable unfurling” and inevitable unraveling is the presence or absence of the human virtues. Human virtue comes from our nature, from nature.

“Nature’s richness lies in its power to nourish all living things; its greatness lies in its power to give them beauty and splendor.” I Ching