Was Osama bin Laden being proactive?

Well I managed to step in it quite nicely today. Up to the knees and then I had to start bailing.

The lesson on being proactive versus being reactive had been going so well. Proactive people “make it happen”, while reactive people “get happened to”. Proactive people are “can do”, while reactive people are “can’t do”. Proactives are “change agents”, while reactives are “victims”. Etc, etc ….

The pattern you notice from the lesson is that proactive equals good, while reactive is bad.

He was probably proactive ...

So can you give some examples of proactive people and reactive people? Yes, yes, Osama bin Laden, reactive. … Well…. Um… no, maybe not, … not necessarily? He did, he was a change agent, he made it happen. And thinking about it now, I’d be willing to bet Hitler was pretty proactive too.

... but so was he.

So I started to bail, trying to convey the idea that being proactive was about personal empowerment, and just because the bad guys are proactive doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. I hope I got that across. What I think I should have added, and I’ll have to remember to do so tomorrow, is that if the bad guys are proactive, it’s all the more reason for the rest of us to be proactive too.

3 thoughts on “Was Osama bin Laden being proactive?”

  1. I always thought that character traits were neither good nor bad. They were the tendencies in humans that have helped forward civilization (meet fundamental needs) and provide for survival.

    It does not provide a logical fallacy for a person to use their tendencies for ill. It is sad and hurts humanity. The call of the Montessori child is to use their tendencies for the betterment of humanity. The discussion is about the choice not about innate goodness or badness in tendencies. A discussion of Socrates’s trial might be a discussion of how to logically look at use of tendencies. “So you say I am a corrupter of youth….”

    At least that is how I’ve contemplated it before.

  2. I quite agree. It’s just that as the lesson is current formulated there is very much a good-bad dichotomy; proactive having all the good descriptors. The purpose of the lesson is to show students the advantages of taking responsibility, personal empowerment, but I feel that I need to point out the Spiderman axiom, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

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