By Douglas Murphy, The Telegraph, February 11, 2022
Who knew that empathy wasn’t enough? Two leaders who got to their positions by showing how much they can emote, how much they can feel, how much they care, now appear to be in the worst positions of almost any head of government in the democratic world.
The Telegraph’s Douglas Murphy looks at the caring shtick of compassion’s poster leaders, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern and Canada’s Justin Trudeau.
Murphy notes that in the case of Ardern, she has implemented one round of lockdowns after another in pursuit of zero-Covid, further isolating one of the most isolated nations in the world. Murphy calls out Ardern’s “performative caring” as having tipped over to madness after she called off her own wedding because of (her own) lockdown restrictions, when she should have been moving to lift them.
Murphy takes Trudeau to task for un-personing “anyone hesitant about taking the vaccine as being (guess what?) racist, misogynistic and more.” An attitude that has left him cornered as thousands of truckers gathered in the country’s capital to protest displaying vaccine passports in the course of their solitary work. As he moves to have truckers dispersed, regular citizens, angry and frustrated with prolonged pandemic restrictions, have taken their place.
Murphy concludes empathy or “performative caring” is not up to the task of leadership. A role that requires “grit, capability, adaptability and expertise”. Job requirements he says neither Ardern nor Trudeau possess.