My ultimate explanation and answer to today's problems
When people who think they know it all are in leadership positions, this is why things are the way they are in 2025
“When Know‑It‑Alls Lead, Everyone Loses”
In 2025, the consequences of poor leadership are visible in every layer of society—from boardrooms and government chambers to school districts and neighborhood associations. The issue isn’t just corruption or incompetence; it’s a deeper cultural flaw: too many people in leadership positions mistake authority for wisdom.
Leaders who believe they already know it all stop learning. They dismiss dissenting voices, silence creativity, and choke off progress. In a rapidly changing world—where technology, economy, and social needs evolve almost daily—this arrogance is fatal. Instead of adapting, such leaders cling to outdated ideas, often rebranding stubbornness as “decisiveness.” The result? Broken systems, disconnected policies, and frustrated communities.
Equally damaging is the absence of listening and collaboration. True leadership requires empathy and humility—the courage to admit when one is wrong and the maturity to recognize the value of collective intelligence. When those traits disappear, the ripple effects spread quickly: workplaces become toxic, innovation stalls, and trust in institutions collapses. People begin to disengage, withdrawing their talent and participation because they feel unheard and undervalued.
But there’s another underlying factor driving this crisis: a rise in narcissism among those elevated to power. Narcissistic leaders thrive on control, admiration, and the appearance of success rather than genuine achievement. Their self-image becomes more important than collective well-being. Instead of empowering others, they compete with them. Instead of fostering growth, they seek validation. This dynamic stifles honest feedback, discourages accountability, and rewards those who mirror the leader’s ego rather than challenge it. Over time, such environments breed fear, conformity, and burnout.
Constructive communication—the ability to give and receive feedback respectfully—is the lifeblood of any healthy organization or society. Without it, everything becomes adversarial. Instead of working together toward solutions, teams splinter into factions, each convinced they’re right. This isn’t theoretical; it’s a reflection of what we see daily in 2025’s political gridlock, public misinformation wars, and workplace burnout epidemics.
The lesson is clear: expertise without humility is dangerous, and confidence without empathy becomes narcissism in disguise. Knowledge must be coupled with curiosity, and leadership must be rooted in service. Until those in positions of power rediscover that truth, we’ll continue to live in a world built by people who refused to listen.
Are you wondering what the solution is? If so then you may have the curiosity I have had all my life, the urge to always ask "Why?" and there's no generic parent answer like "because I said so" that will ever work for me so why would so many just accept things the way they are and not protest and "fight" for social change?
One thing I have noticed is our collective attention spans has shortened, people like tiktok and youtube shorts more than full videos, another is our elected officials have neglected to break up some major monopolies and haven't done so since 1984 when AT&T was broken up into the "baby bells". While Great Britain has won lawsuit after lawsuit against some of our tech giants and their "anti-competitive nature" or monopolies on certain things.
It's a fact that the 99% of the US's and probably even other countries populations who are at the lower to middle income lines, are the drivers of the consumer based economies because when you give money to the people who actually need it and spend it, it has a overwhelmingly good impact. When you give tax breaks to the wealthy who already have ways to hide their money or paying their fair share, none is more apparent than in the "Panama papers" documentary where they used shell companies to hide money and assets, it only deepens the Income Inequality gap more.
Then there's Wall Street, which now is mostly automated and it's an open secret that dark pools of money or corporations control it, this was apparent when the "Game stop, Red robin" incident happened and the app halted all gamestop trading because it's investors were betting on it to fail and betting big so they stood to lose a substantial amount of money, when a system is rigged in this way it's no longer a free market of any sort.
Then there's the money = influence problem. I found this to be so true just recently even thou I already knew about it due to the "Citizen's united" court case which is a misleading name to call a court case because it allowed for corporations to spend unlimited amounts on political campaigns. This money could be better spent updating our crumbling infrastructure instead of political ads.
Solving the problem is easy but since the one's in power don't want to solve any problems that's what is making it very difficult. All we would have to do is draft an updated version of the constitution which is a 300 year old document aimed at helping wealthy landowners, and make it truly for the people, by the people, not just the rich and wealthy. Then all we would need to do is study what the happiest countries or what other countries are doing right and try to emulate what they are doing because I have found one universal thing to be true, we are all human and flawed in one way or another, no matter what race, religion, disease, or country we are from, no one is perfect but it is like this everywhere not just the US. What other, happier countries do right is they talk to each other and are able to communicate effectively, they have 14 choices in political parties which creates a healthy competition, keeping corruption at a minimum, this is where I'll end this post saying "Community Engagement, Empathy and Transparency" are the key factors that we as people need to foster and improve upon before it's too late.
**Here's one example of how people can be politically different but agree on something: I had a wonderful conversation with the man who installed my internet. He was a conservative republican but I brought up the latest appointee to the secretary of defense and because he so thoroughly explained how this person's policies are good (which I was merely pointing out that his 2 years in the national guard wasn't sufficient to be in his role) he convinced me that our current secretary of defense's POLICIES were good and doing the right thing, therefore changing my mind about that topic. He and I talked for an hour or so and I listened and replied occasionally but that kind of explaining of why is what I respect most, he had the experience in the military to know what he was talking about that is why I trust his opinion as well as his explanation.
and like I always say, you don't have to take my word for it, do your own research and see if you don't come to the same conclusion I have, perplexity.ai makes it easy and it references academic journals and is the only ai search engine that cites it's sources.
Comments