If something was predictable, after what some of us considered as a fact, and now manifested in the political reality of the country, it is the phrase that titles this note: a thunderous vacuum of opposition leadership and whose final manifestation was determined by the "self-suicide" of the official opposition with the dismantling of the so-called interim government.
Without going into the famous considerations pointing to the non-existence of vacuum as a concept in physical science, the horror vacui of nature became an absolute principle for most of the philosophical schools of antiquity (see in Spanish Aristotle, Torricelli, Pascal, the horror of vacuum and atmospheric pressure, in https://vicmat.com/aristoteles-torricelli-pascal-horror-al-vacio-la-presion-atmosferica/).
In practice, Aristotle's principle, which stated that Nature abhors a vacuum, has been extended to fields as different as politics, to the point that we speak of other types of vacuums, such as power and leadership, subject to the same rules of physics, according to which such vacuums cannot exist.
Without entering into the philosophical discussion of whether it is possible to transfer these concepts between different fields, what is certain in practice is that if there is no one driving the vehicle, there is always someone in front, even if not visible, affirming that famous concept of the non-existence of emptiness.
If the driver of a moving car has a heart attack while driving and is unconscious, the machine will go to a destination that will be according to the combination of speed, condition of the tires, alignment of the vehicle, etc., etc., etc., etc. All these factors together will cause the car to swerve to the right or left, causing the car to impact, with greater or lesser intensity, against the first object on the road. In this case, it could be said that the state of the machine took over "driving" the vehicle.
Some might raise the controversy that the vehicle was "driverless". But in reality there was: the condition of the car at the time of the loss of the driver. The same would apply to anything or any situation that requires driving. That is also the case with villages, in which case their drivers are called leaders. In this case, when the leadership is lost, the situation will take the turns determined by the context in which the former leader acted. And here the situation is more complex than in the case of the automobile.
Venezuelans have historically confused the expression "opposition leadership" by associating it with those who exercise the current leadership of the political parties. This mistake could have gone unnoticed before in less serious conditions in the country, when the prevailing parties alternated power, without forgetting that they were the only ones in the courtyard. There, the leadership of the leaders of the political parties could coincide with the leadership of the country.
As the situation in Venezuela changed drastically and a tyranny was formally installed in power, hardly these "leaders" -who in reality were the leaders of those parties- never reached the necessary conditions to truly lead the Venezuelan opposition people to overthrow it. From that very moment, there never existed in Venezuela an "opposition leadership". What existed were the shells of some parties with a devalued leadership.
In spite of all that, the parties insisted on their mistake of misunderstanding what was required and consistently prevented the natural leadership of each union and grouping, in each region of the country, from developing, to face something that required the agglutination of each opposition political force to oppose the tyranny. The opposition parties "forgot" to count themselves internally, prevailing in their leadership the same dinosaurs that for decades have led the opposition ship to the obvious stranded situation in which they now find themselves. It is not for nothing that it is now said that there is a vacuum of leadership, when what actually exists is the control of the factors that act in the context of the current situation, without ANYONE effectively directing its course, as in the example of the vehicle mentioned above.
Although this situation has been going on for a very long time, it is now even more notorious as the leadership of the opposition parties has completely lost the trust of Venezuelans, who have historically mistakenly believed that these political leaders are in fact opposition leaders.
From an interview 8 years ago at the Information and Communications Office of the UCV, Dr. Vladimir Petit, a specialist in leadership issues, explained at that time what he considered to be the type of leadership that the country might be in need of: "He clarifies first of all, not being sure if the country really needs a leader. "What I am sure of is that we need someone to exercise leadership." In that order he points out that what currently exists in the country is a vacuum of the same"..." He emphasizes in that sense, that if one considers that the near future is very unstable, "automatically the system looks, in the first place, for a male, which seems unfair to me. Secondly, it looks for someone different from what is currently available. Then it looks for someone who is not young. Why? Because if you feel that the crisis has exploded, you are going to look for an expert. Fourth, you look for someone who had nothing to do with the situation that led us here. And fifth, you look for someone of character," he says. "If you ask me what Venezuela is looking for, I would say someone between 40 and 50 years old; male, which, I repeat, is very unfair; and someone who has tough and severe positions to be able to fix this. Not a professional politician. Someone I associate with any other area not directly related to professional politics", he emphasizes" (see in Spanish Is there a leadership crisis in Venezuela?, interview by Humberto Luque DIC/UCV, in http://www.ucv.ve/organizacion/rectorado/direcciones/direccion-de-informacion-y-comunic-dic/detalle-noticias-dic/article/existe-crisis-de-liderazgo-en-venezuela.html).
Although I disagree that Venezuelans are looking for "a male...who has hard and severe
positions to be able to fix this" and limited in age, I do agree that
we needed someone with experience to exercise leadership and we disapproved
that he was related to any of the parties we already know, coming from the
civil society. Venezuelan women have shown that in this struggle they have far
surpassed the toughness that is attributed to men, not to mention the elderly
who have left the comfort of their homes to fight for their pensions and
retirements in the streets in the heat of the moment. But it is quite possible
that Dr. Petit has updated that profile after seeing what has happened in the
last few years.
In other words, ANY Venezuelan, man, woman of any age, more identified
with the tragedy of the country than anything else, with sufficient life and
professional experience and willing to confront the regime with a clear and
precise narrative, can take on this task, which is by no means easy, as we will
see.
From Simon Sinek, an outstanding international author on leadership, we can advance a thesis that may explain why we have not found that leadership so far, despite having clear what the required profile is, as drawn by Dr. Vladimir Petit at the UCV. From a short video of Sinek, I extract for you the following reflections, with my own translation and interpretation:
“Leadership is hard. It’s extremely hard. You know talking to a friend of mine who use to lead all Marine Corps training for the United States Marine Corps, he said the number one criterion for being a leader is you want to be one. And we have to remember that being a leader is like be being a parent. You know, where for a lot of people who have a job, they do the job for the time they’re at work. Well, when you’re a parent, you know, there are no on/off hours. You know, you’re a parent all the time. And you’re not sure when something is going to happen. It can happen at opportune and inopportune times and you have to react. Well, leadership is the same. You don’t get to turn on or off when you’re a leader. The minute you accept a position of leadership that’s now a 24/7 job.
Leadership is actually a very, very difficult. It also comes with the courage to stay the course. We talked about mission creep. To say, “No, we’re not to pursue that shiny object. We’re going to stay on this course”. That takes courage. Because remember, so many of the pressures put upon us, both external and from sometimes inside the company itself, with our financial incentives, are putting pressure on us, not always to do the right thing, or sometimes to do the expedient thing, or the financially effective thing. But that may damage to the organization and to the people later on. “But I’ll benefit”, you know? Things like that. So the courage, the courage to do the right thing. The courage to have the integrity, the courage to say “I’m struggling, I need help”. The courage to set an example, the courage to build a trusting team, the courage to learn and teach human skills. I think people under appreciate just how difficult leadership is, and is much more than simply accepting the promotion” (see Simon Sinek, Being a leader means being responsible 24/7, in https://tinyurl.com/59zrvkcf).
Although Sinek refers primarily to the business environment, the concept expressed is transferable to any leadership in any other environment, especially the political one. Hence, we can exchange the term "company" for "movement" and "promotion" for "responsibility". What remains unchanged is the need for courage to do the right thing.
And that is precisely what has been lacking in those who have been put - or have been put - for one reason or another at the forefront of this struggle. To follow the course that their conscience dictates, without the distraction of malicious and interested advisors because that takes courage, leading by example. We have NEVER had that, let alone 7/24 leadership work with that orientation. The good thing about everything that is happening to us with this so called leadership vacuum is that we are closer than before to fill that vacuum to achieve that....
Caracas, January 27, 2023
Blog:
TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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