Well here we have it.
After more than 52,000 words on topics from potatoes to washing machines, here is the 100th post on alloporus | ideas for healthy thinking.
It is a milestone of sorts and a good excuse to take stock.
I started blogging in 2010, only so did quite a few others. There are now more blogs on the net than voters who will turn out for the upcoming US presidential elections [staggering but true]. So many bloggers means a scramble for readers and at times it seems people are more interested in writing than reading the ramblings of others.
Visions of a large and growing readership on alloporus fell away soon enough.
On the upside blogging is good practice for any would be author. There is great discipline in always trying to say something interesting, a few hundred words at a time. So what have the previous 99 posts tried to say?
Rather than get all wordy on you I thought I would try to strip it all back to sound bites, so here goes.
Leadership sucks.
That’s it. 99 posts and a whole heap of words that try to explain it, when, in fact, two words suffice.
Leadership sucks.
It would seem that a theme running through just about all those 99 little ditties is that leadership is very hard to do well.
It requires more than force of personality to rise above the general chatter of all the mini-demagogues running around leading their band of one. Leaders need smart, attractive ideas that are strong enough to cut through the noise and then persist for long enough to take hold. This requires extraordinary tenacity even when you have a great idea.
And it seems we have a dearth of true leaders around who are even prepared to give it a go. Instead we are saddled with the egoists, chatterers, and wannabes trying to fill the gap.
Bless ‘em for trying but really our leadership sucks.
And, in the modern world, leadership itself sucks. Sticking your neck out is a risky business given the multitude of tools available to all and sundry to knock it off.
That’s assuming that you can even be heard. Ironically the information revolution has also made it easier for us to ignore the important stuff. We are far too busy texting, tweeting, posting on our wall and, well yes, blogging, to listen to real ideas. So breaking that big one through to enough minds is a huge challenge. So leadership sucks too.
Having simplified all those posts penned with great angst and care to two words, it begs the serious question of what to do with the next 100 posts?
I am tempted to type ‘leadership sucks’ in a ribbon across the page and keep posting that every day until flames consume me. Only that would be the ultimate avoidance; the head in the sand that I subconsciously railed against in the first 99 posts.
I could produce more of the same. A regular 500-word whinge about how terrible it all is. But this risks perpetual sadness and the likelihood of becoming a drunkard with his glass always half empty. And yet I have come to realize that this is my default condition. Not the drunkard bit but I too easily land close to despair at the ways of the human world, a state of mind I can tolerate only because my passion is readily aroused by good ideas and natural wonders.
So to continue to post yet more thinly veiled complaints about lack of leadership seems to have me running away again.
I could go all ‘ra, ra, ra’ on you and just talk everything up.
It would be easy enough to find ideas in the environmental good news stories that pepper the websites of green groups, NGOs and even some of the government departments. From there it would just be a matter of seeing the glass as half full. Yes we can and all that
Of course regular alloporus readers will be laughing at this point. They know me too well. Half empty to half full would require a change equivalent to spontaneous combustion. Rare indeed.
So I am going to try something else.
My idea is to see if I can make the next 100 posts about a more fundamental requirement. The theme is already a category tag on alloporus, suggesting that I have tried it already, only now I will try to make it stick.
It also happens to be the theme of my next ebook that is currently with the editor and will be available at a huge discount to loyal alloporus readers in time for their Christmas stocking.
So here is my new theme, and again two words are enough.
Awareness matters.
Alloporus 
“Involvement matters” rather than ‘Awareness Matters’. Ie, as dismayed as we are at ‘leadership sucks’ if we are not happy with our leaders we should be making that known – not just at the ballot box – but a quick and measured email to your local parliamentarian. Avoid the bile, just explain why you consider a leader or other key person unsuitable – and how it could affect your voting.
I tell my local Liberal MP that neither Gillard nor Abbott are up to the job – so I will vote informal by writing Rudd and Turnbull on my ballot paper and numbering them in preference. An abrogation of my responsibility to vote? Perhaps. And I also tell my MP that the scrutineers will take more notice of that than an ordinary vote. That way the message gets through for next time. But of course it gets through now to my local member.
Funny, while many of us are seriously upset with the parlous quality of our leaders, remember how we used to judge them on their ‘oratory’. And this wasn’t a measure of spin but a measure of ability to explain and inspire. Ah, remember those halcyon days. Where are today’s orators?
Thanks Harley. Oratory was possible when the orator had something to say. And most of the good orators meant what they said. Do we know what we mean any more?
Thanks Mark
Awareness is good. BUT….
1) Who needs to be aware, of what and to what degree?
2) Quality of information matters – misinformation leads to unawareness.
3) Knowledge (awareness) is power but what to do with it?
3) How is awareness translated into positive informed action and change?
I look forward to the next 100 posts.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks Frank, glad you enjoy the posts.
Thanks also for your comment. I must confess that I imagined that awareness was easily grasped as I believed that it had some sort of meaning for folk. But you are right, what it is, when and how we use it, and the ‘so what’ question all need some attention. Likely they will have as many answers as there are people willing to ask the question. Food for thought indeed.