namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

My thought this morning:

Preachers should be compassionate. Administrators should be just.

When mercy replaces justice in a land, the people are left unprotected by the rule of law.

One of the great things about our modern political systems is that they are based on the idea that everyone should be protected by the rule of impartial law. There are no favorites, no elites who can act with impunity.

I have a friend called Ekendra das. He is a person who lives in New South Wales, Australia, about an hour and a half from me. Here is a link to his blog. He has written a post that addresses some of the same points that my recent posts have, so I'm going to comment on his post. Here is a link to his post: Ācāryas – Why do they exist?.

I welcome the opportunity to engage in dialog on this subject, because, as Kaviraja Goswami tells us in his Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, one should not avoid controversial topics, for they strengthen the mind. They also allow robust discussion of a subject to reveal additional insights, or hidden flaws. Plus, Ekendra is a Texan, and he's into smackdown philosophy (I've got my white flag ready in case I need it). :-)

The existence of humorous parodies such as these indirectly indicate the existence of the real thing, that is genuine leadership. So understanding properly what is real and what is counterfeit is important, and requires careful discrimination. Blindly rejecting everything is equal to blindly accepting everything. It arises from a lack of discrimination.

One of the most popular Google searches that brings readers to this site is “hedgehog concept”. This is a term made popular by Jim Collins in his book “Good to Great”. This book, which I’ve reviewed on this site previously, examines an elite group of companies that have in their history transitioned from “nothing special” to outstanding performers in their field and have sustained this level of performance for more than 15 years after the transition.

The Hedgehog concept (read a detailed explanation here) refers to a discipline or behaviour that all the so-called “Good to Great” companies exhibit. It is so-named from a parable that demonstrates the principle: