In our socialistic society, the trend is to punish those who lead and provide for society by subjecting their efforts to excessive regulation or taxes. At the same time, our egalitarian culture tends to discourage natural leaders by presenting unrepresentative characters as role models. Finally communities are decreasingly able to identify and support natural local leaders due to the breakdown of community spirit. The result is a society without a compass.
As sociologist Michael Novak notes, our policy should be the opposite:
“Any society which does not promote and support its best natural leaders punishes itself and weakens its probabilities of survival and progress. In all fields, genius is rare and high talent is in relatively short supply. Any political economy which wishes to be as creative as possible must try to invent a system which permits persons of talent in all fields to discover their talents, to develop them, and to find the social positions in which their exercise bears maximal fruit. …Such a system requires vital communities which identify and promote talents appearing in their midst.” (Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, Touchstone, New York, 1983, p. 84-85)