Opinion / Columnist
Youth is a double-edged sword for the President
03 Mar 2018 at 07:59hrs | Views
YOUTH HAS ALWAYS BEEN A double-edged sword in politics. It tends to inject the governments with fresh ideas and energy, but it can also lead to impetuousness and a disregard for the tried and true. So far, Nelson Chamisa who is so lucky to rise up through death of others has demonstrated both the positive and the negative sides of the equation. He rose to prominence after the death of another spiritual young leader elder of the Seventh Day Adventist church and an MDC Secretary general and a Lawyer Mr Learmore Judah Jongwe. As the nation's party's youngest chief executive - he turned 40 in February 2018 the same month Tsvangirai died. He rose on the death of Tsvangirai and grabbed power from the rightful candidate. He disregarded the dying and consolidated his hold on power while Tsvangirai was kicking his last.
Chamisa's youthfulness made him disregard the humanity and culture. Claimed inheritence even before the demise of his president. People sympathised with his age and his hired thugs made scenes of violence at the funera tribally assaulting Khupe and giving Mwonzora a fright of his life. Yes Chamisa is both innovative and vigorous, but at the same time he is unseasoned and perhaps too willing to experiment and take big risks. He can not hesitate to mortgage the country to satsfy his virgin mind. Chamisa is a virgin to reason and a host to show off. To him power is in the mouth and not in the brains. His youthfulness exposes him to overzealousness and excitement which will lead the nation astray.
Over the years, youngest presidents have had mixed records. Only one - Theodore Roosevelt, the youngest chief executive in history, who took office in 1901 at the age of 42 years and 10 months - qualifies to be in the great or near-great categories, according to historians. Roosevelt's age was a joking matter even for his friends and advisers because he seemed so preposterously young. Secretary of War Elihu Root told him on his 46th birthday in 1904: "You have made a very good start in life, and your friends have great hopes for you when you grow up." At that point, he had been commander in chief for three years. But he had not yet grown.
Rounding out the youngest five were John F. Kennedy, who was 43 years and 7 months old when he was inaugurated; Bill Clinton at 46 years and 5 months; Ulysses S. Grant at 46 years and 10 months; and Obama at 47 years and 5 months.
Kennedy still has a hold on the popular imagination as a young leader whose potential was cut short by assassination. The reputations of Clinton and Grant were marred by scandal. It is very true that age plus power is equal to disaster.
"Ideally, what you get from a young president is seeing beyond the status quo,"Youth creates a level of freshness - someone who will look at ideas in a different way and who is not confined to old, stale answers to problems." And a young president often is seen as having an advantage in stamina and emotional energy that can help in tackling problems that older leaders wouldn't touch. But young leaders take risks motivated by immaturity showing off and trying to prove a ooint without considering the consequences they try to usher in a new era of activist government and deal with long-term issues such as stimulating the economy and overhauling the healthcare system it remains to be ineffective
On the negative side,"inexperience is a problem." A young president inevitably requires on-the-job training. Although he will be reluctant to admit it publicly. "Presumably," Kennedy confided to a friend, "Experience matters - you can't get around it. People who've gone into battle before are more ready for the next battle." Chamisa intends to experiment with our lives and he will be a problem to remove from office.
youth has its advantages in the eyes of the public. "Youth connotes energy, freshness, the future," and a sense of optimism, And for many voters, "older" suggests staleness, being out of touch, and putting political calculations above doing what's right. But if a president doesn't deliver results relatively quickly, the disadvantage of inexperience could rapidly overcome the advantages of youth in the public's mind, That may be where Chamisa is headed.
More broadly, the history of youngest presidents offers both inspiration and cause for concern. In most cases the young presidents have caused untold sufferings of the masses. we prefer older leaders for stability and younger leaders for change but change without stability is a threat to peace.
Whereas most political leaders around the world achieve their position in office when they are well in their forties, many of the world's best known revolutionary leaders were considerably younger when they came to prominence.
Here are some of the world's best known revolutionary leaders and the age at which they started to rule: Fidel Castro (33), Napoleon (30), Emiliano Zapata (31).
Psychologists will tell you that age is an important aspect of person perception. Age is one of the first things we infer when we look at a face and we have a keen interest in guessing people's age when we first meet them.
So far leadership scientists have not been terribly interested in questions regarding age and leadership. This is an oversight for various reasons. First, humans tend to live longer so there will be more people of old age around than ever before in our history. Second there seems to be a general trend towards endorsing younger leaders in politics. So what does age tell us about implicit leadership abilities? Age simply implores us to be careful in our choices.
In South Africa the youthful EFF party reduces the parliament to a circus.
So Chamisa should not be taken on his age for his age falls on the lines of experiments and lacks seriousness.
People thought that age can be seen as a cue for wisdom so whenever groups encounter problems that require some knowledge about norms, values and old ways of doing things (traditions) we would expect them to endorse an older leader. This then shows us that choosing Chamisa on the basis of his age is reducing the nation to a circus show.
So it is in the interest of the nation to follow the oldest member if they want to survive. As people get older they become better at thinking about social conflicts, and so does their crystallized intelligence - combining knowledge from various sources. The country needs maturity.
Social scientists have described people to be suffering from midlife crisis from the age of forty so allowing Chamisa to be the president of the nation is like giving a blind man the bus to drive across the bridge.
The young leaders becomes relevant if you need change. In this case the change has already been implemented. The country is now open to business.
What every Zimbabwean need now is stability. So for stability vote for mature people.
Chamisa is capable of exciting the crowds but the country can not be ruled by excitement.
Stability is the key to prosperity. It can be brought maturity do not fall for the Chamisa euphoria. Zimbabwe needs maturity. Vote wisely.
Vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk
Chamisa's youthfulness made him disregard the humanity and culture. Claimed inheritence even before the demise of his president. People sympathised with his age and his hired thugs made scenes of violence at the funera tribally assaulting Khupe and giving Mwonzora a fright of his life. Yes Chamisa is both innovative and vigorous, but at the same time he is unseasoned and perhaps too willing to experiment and take big risks. He can not hesitate to mortgage the country to satsfy his virgin mind. Chamisa is a virgin to reason and a host to show off. To him power is in the mouth and not in the brains. His youthfulness exposes him to overzealousness and excitement which will lead the nation astray.
Over the years, youngest presidents have had mixed records. Only one - Theodore Roosevelt, the youngest chief executive in history, who took office in 1901 at the age of 42 years and 10 months - qualifies to be in the great or near-great categories, according to historians. Roosevelt's age was a joking matter even for his friends and advisers because he seemed so preposterously young. Secretary of War Elihu Root told him on his 46th birthday in 1904: "You have made a very good start in life, and your friends have great hopes for you when you grow up." At that point, he had been commander in chief for three years. But he had not yet grown.
Rounding out the youngest five were John F. Kennedy, who was 43 years and 7 months old when he was inaugurated; Bill Clinton at 46 years and 5 months; Ulysses S. Grant at 46 years and 10 months; and Obama at 47 years and 5 months.
Kennedy still has a hold on the popular imagination as a young leader whose potential was cut short by assassination. The reputations of Clinton and Grant were marred by scandal. It is very true that age plus power is equal to disaster.
"Ideally, what you get from a young president is seeing beyond the status quo,"Youth creates a level of freshness - someone who will look at ideas in a different way and who is not confined to old, stale answers to problems." And a young president often is seen as having an advantage in stamina and emotional energy that can help in tackling problems that older leaders wouldn't touch. But young leaders take risks motivated by immaturity showing off and trying to prove a ooint without considering the consequences they try to usher in a new era of activist government and deal with long-term issues such as stimulating the economy and overhauling the healthcare system it remains to be ineffective
On the negative side,"inexperience is a problem." A young president inevitably requires on-the-job training. Although he will be reluctant to admit it publicly. "Presumably," Kennedy confided to a friend, "Experience matters - you can't get around it. People who've gone into battle before are more ready for the next battle." Chamisa intends to experiment with our lives and he will be a problem to remove from office.
youth has its advantages in the eyes of the public. "Youth connotes energy, freshness, the future," and a sense of optimism, And for many voters, "older" suggests staleness, being out of touch, and putting political calculations above doing what's right. But if a president doesn't deliver results relatively quickly, the disadvantage of inexperience could rapidly overcome the advantages of youth in the public's mind, That may be where Chamisa is headed.
More broadly, the history of youngest presidents offers both inspiration and cause for concern. In most cases the young presidents have caused untold sufferings of the masses. we prefer older leaders for stability and younger leaders for change but change without stability is a threat to peace.
Whereas most political leaders around the world achieve their position in office when they are well in their forties, many of the world's best known revolutionary leaders were considerably younger when they came to prominence.
Here are some of the world's best known revolutionary leaders and the age at which they started to rule: Fidel Castro (33), Napoleon (30), Emiliano Zapata (31).
Psychologists will tell you that age is an important aspect of person perception. Age is one of the first things we infer when we look at a face and we have a keen interest in guessing people's age when we first meet them.
So far leadership scientists have not been terribly interested in questions regarding age and leadership. This is an oversight for various reasons. First, humans tend to live longer so there will be more people of old age around than ever before in our history. Second there seems to be a general trend towards endorsing younger leaders in politics. So what does age tell us about implicit leadership abilities? Age simply implores us to be careful in our choices.
In South Africa the youthful EFF party reduces the parliament to a circus.
So Chamisa should not be taken on his age for his age falls on the lines of experiments and lacks seriousness.
People thought that age can be seen as a cue for wisdom so whenever groups encounter problems that require some knowledge about norms, values and old ways of doing things (traditions) we would expect them to endorse an older leader. This then shows us that choosing Chamisa on the basis of his age is reducing the nation to a circus show.
So it is in the interest of the nation to follow the oldest member if they want to survive. As people get older they become better at thinking about social conflicts, and so does their crystallized intelligence - combining knowledge from various sources. The country needs maturity.
Social scientists have described people to be suffering from midlife crisis from the age of forty so allowing Chamisa to be the president of the nation is like giving a blind man the bus to drive across the bridge.
The young leaders becomes relevant if you need change. In this case the change has already been implemented. The country is now open to business.
What every Zimbabwean need now is stability. So for stability vote for mature people.
Chamisa is capable of exciting the crowds but the country can not be ruled by excitement.
Stability is the key to prosperity. It can be brought maturity do not fall for the Chamisa euphoria. Zimbabwe needs maturity. Vote wisely.
Vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk
Source - Dr Masimba Mavaza
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