Museum visit

Just got back from the Nelson-Atkins museum in KC.  It was a moving visit, and I'll be going back again next weekend.

One gallery in particular made me reflect on our leadership lesson that involved the concept of solitary leadership.  While I overwhelmingly support the points the Yale professor made during his speech at West Point, I think it's important to recognize there must be a balance.  "All things in moderation," my mother used to say.  The exhibit framed solitude in this way.

According to some of the explanations on the wall, after the industrial revolution, the urbanization of society broke the bonds to family, community and the shared hardships and rewards characteristic of an agrarian lifestyle.  Without this common ground to serve as a centerpiece for communities, individuals increasingly withdrew within themselves looking for deeper meaning, alienating themselves from each other in the process.
  Advancements in technology and significant scientific discovery further drove a wedge between people and their faith as these discoveries were viewed as "enlightening" and a direct challenge to religious beliefs as opposed to inspirational evidence of His divine power.
  Sigmund Freud popularized the benefits of a lifestyle focused inward, analyzing the distinctly separate components of id, rational ego, and irrational ego to work in harmony for the purposes of increasing personal happiness, unintentionally neglecting the importance of human relations in society.
  All of these factors coupled with two world wars that not only brought unprecedented death and destruction, but illustrated a complete failure of both reason and perceived enlightenment, plummeted our society into a depression.  The concept of a faith based community had long since withered for want of a more cerebral existence based on science, technology and reason alone, which of course failed them in the darkest hour.
  The art produced during this interwar period is haunting.  I very much suggest going, but you need to prepare yourself first, especially if your "core self" is especially vulnerable from the last few months of introspection.