It is for many people in many parts of the world a new way of acting. The third is the idea that people working together to promote the general welfare and to protect basic freedoms find a common ground that transcends differences and provides new perspectives on the purpose of the human journey. They are finding out that when they get involved with the needs of others, both those who help and those who are helped are transformed. It is for many people in many parts of the world a new way of being. It is no accident that those who use language of civil society seem to be preoccupied with ethics and values.
Leadership is in many ways a moral activity.
The best and most responsible of the new leaders have a vision of a higher purpose, and they seek to inspire, motivate, and gain the commitment of others to carry out that vision. They are able to persuade others to try new ideas because they are social entrepreneurs who create an excitement about a mission or challenge. I have certainly found this to be true during recent visits to the Soviet Union. The members of the Congress of People s deputies I met in Lithuania and the Ukarine, the returning exiles from Siberia who told tragic tales of frustration and perseverance, and even some of the people with whom I visited in their home in Leningrad and Moscow were all fighting for reforms so fundamental that they challenged both the structure and philosophy of the Soviet State, But leadership in Soviet society, as in other societies of Eastern Europe, is a series of contradiction at the moment. There are many new voices arguing that the society must be made plural and more civil, but there is an anxiety about whether the toleration culture maybe inborn, a product of stagnation, making it difficult to break totally with the past.