Leadership

I came across this quote in the recent issue of "Science News" (Oct. 25, 2008) which I subscribe to. It is from animal ecologist Hanna Kokko of Finland's University of Helsinki in response to a question and answer discussion held September 9th. I thought it had important implications not only for the vote occurring on this day across the United States, but also for all men and women in leadership, political or spiritual:

There is always an applied side to thinking deeply. In any society there are many complicated issues that unfortunately get simplified to the point where short-sightedness wins.... Science teaches us to think more broadly than that. If we really had wise leaders, they would take the long-term perspective seriously precisely because we are so prone to ignore it. They should listen to scientists and philosophers much more than economists who tend to be interested in what happens in the next annual quartile.