No Place For ‘Mavericks’

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31915, 17 February 1969, Page 20

No Place For ‘Mavericks’

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Feb. 16. There was no place for the “maverick” in today’s society, but it was healthy for an individual to question accepted facets of a way of life, the Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) told the Rotary Youth Leadership Award seminar in Auckland last night.

“It may be that there was at one time a place in society for the maverick —the completely undisciplined, ener-

getic individual whose impact stemmed from his habit of being different, being unpredictable, and of course being effective,” the Minister said. “If that was so, then it is certainly not true today.” The maverick individual or the maverick nation, great or small, was a menace to the development of human society. Mr Muldoon said that by using the term maverick he was not speaking of the rebel, the questioner, the protester, or the individual, who for some good reason found himself opposed to some accepted facet of society’s way of life.

“The man who opposes out of deep conviction or as a result of intellectual analysis benefits society and helps

keep it alive and alert” he said.

“But the unreasoning and unreasonable maverick is a nuisance at least and a menace at worst”

Mr Muldoon told of qualities necessary for leadership. “One must have the ability and willingness to know and understand,” he said. “There is no substitute for work.

“It is good to be decisive, but it is foolish to be decisive without prior thought knowledge or understanding.”

No-one could succeed as a leader in any walk of life unless his actions and his utterances in relation to his job had a foundation of integrity.

The “don’ts” of leadership listed by the Minister were:

Self-interest: “Anyone who aspires to leadership will only weaken his effectiveness if self-interest clouds his judgment.” Ambition: “This is a dangerous term and a dangerous area. From my own experience I would say that ambition tends to be a distraction. It may be hard to put aside, but it has no great merit of itself.” Mr Muldoon said that politics and Government administration had to be conducted in public if the public was to have any confidence in its politicians.