Clark Kerr’s vision of a university president in 1963 is awfully prescient. He has painted a picture as a president of the mediator between various groups with differing priorities.

Hutchins wrote of four moral virtues for a university president. I should like to suggest a slightly different three–judgment, courage, and fortitude–but the greatest of these is fortitude since others have so little charity. The mediator, whether in government or industry or labor relations or domestic quarrels, is always subject to some abuse. He wins few clear-cut victories; he must aim more at avoiding the worst than seizing the best. He must find satisfaction in being equally distasteful to each of his constituencies; he must reconcile himself to the harsh reality that successes are shrouded in silence while failures are spotlighted in notoriety.

Now. I know he’s talking about a university president, but let’s suppose that any large multi-consitutent entity will do. Like, say, the USA.

It’s mildly surprising to me that the author even considers that such a man exists (although it is clear from his presidential taxonomies earlier in the book that he knows how absurd of a position it is).

What’s gets me is this: how can anyone look at the skills needed for a job such as this (in 1963, before funding started to dry up and things got even weirder) and assume that a real person would take it? It looks like the perfect job description for a sociopath.

To take a job like the job of a university president, which yes is a job but one that is done very publicly and that will “brand” your reputation for good or ill, AND DO A GOOD JOB AT IT, you’d have to have these qualities:

– Sufficiently ambitious and optimistic to take the job in the first place
– Morally upright (prioritizing the good of the university over personal gain plus the character traits quoted above)
– Okay with being hated, privately and publicly
– Intelligent enough to understand what’s needed for the role but somehow okay with taking below-market salary

These qualities are hard to find in people, let alone in academics, let alone in academics with an inclination to lead. Jordan B Peterson has many of them, except the “okay with being hated” part. The disgraced president of Michigan State is clearly missing the “morally upright” part.

No wonder so many sociopaths make it to the top of the pile. There’s very little incentive for a good man to want to get there.

This is why I’m so grateful for Donald Trump. He’s certainly not a perfect man, but he’s a rare one. And with f-you money, the salary isn’t an issue.

Despite what the liberal media would have you think, this man made it to the top and he is not a sociopath. He is a unicorn among men.