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The Penalty of Leadership
The Penalty of Leadership
In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry the reward and punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction... Jealously does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a common place painting... the leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the followers seeks to depreciate and to destroy- but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as human passions- envy, fear, greed, ambition, and desire to surpass. And it avails nothing...That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live...LIVES.
Written by Theodore McManus 1915 Saturday Evening Post
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"Nikita Khruschev said, "the living will envy the dead," why are so many people bent on surviving a nuclear war?
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