I must take some issue with today’s Daily Journal. Can’t herd cats? I maintain that it is entirely possible to herd cats. I do it daily—on a domestic scale. But as big cat handlers will tell you (along with this small cat handler of four fun, furry, feline familiars), herding cats is much easier to accomplish when the cats want to do what you want them to, and when you want them to do it. Convincing them of this usually means getting them to focus on something which is not urgently and intensely interesting to them ‘in the moment’. Hummingbirds and butterflies are intensely interesting in the moment; coming back into the house at twilight (leaving the flutterbys behind) is not.
This, of course, is the catch. With cats, the basic elements of direction and cooperation seem to be 1) establishing authentic and mutual respect, and eventually, 2) trust. With people, especially with individualists, this is also the catch.
Big cat handlers will tell you, and conservative leaders might note, that conservatives of many individual stripes can be encouraged, directed, and led, in a sense, to focus on those beliefs that are urgent and intensely interesting to them ‘in the [political/social/economic] moment.’ But no one who expects to lead this bunch should assume it is all about them as leaders, nor attempt to enter the leadership arena without an authentic understanding, respect, humility, knowledge and concern for the welfare of the individual/ists with whom they are dealing, in the moment and as they are.
