One Apple A Day #1070
Whenever I am called upon to speak upon moral training and the course of holy living, I am accustomed first to display the power and quality of human nature and show what it is able to accomplish, and then from this to incite the mind of the hearer to (some) forms of virtue, lest it profit nothing to summon to those things which it would have thought to be impossible for it.
I discovered Pelagius, who wrote the quote above, reading the Age of Heretics by Art Kleiner.
Pelagius was a British monk and theologian who lived around 400 AD. And he was a heretic. He believed that every human being has something innately valuable to offer the world. So, salvation was the result of human effort.
His fellow theologians were not of the same idea. For them, only God, through the church, could save our souls because we are all born with the original sin. As a result, he was eventually condemned as a heretic.
When I read about him, I understood what unsettled me a few weeks ago. I was listening to a brilliant man exposing his idea on how we should reform or, better, restart our society. He was laying down all the principles of a new, more liberal and democratic structure. It was a very well thought design, but then he said something to explain the reason for many of the boundaries in this new societal structure. He said that we needed all those boundaries because 90% of people are unreliable, unaware or lazy.
If that's the belief from which you create a new structure or configuration, sooner or later, it will become a command and control one very similar to the one you wanted to replace.
I believe the first step for a leader who wants to create a new way of living and working together is to recognize that every human being has something unique and extraordinary to offer the world. Then, you will shape a configuration aimed at liberating that gift.
Source for the quote: 10 Things You Should Know about Pelagius and Pelagianism