Lester Cha

The book, The Odyssey by Homer, relentlessly contains violence, deception and absence of law enforcement, which reflect the principal of self-sufficiency, obviously distinguishes from our modern society today. In modern world today, we are functioned by the laws and law enforcers, which help keep us away from as much danger or violence as possible. We lie upon legal systems and courts to judge whether people deserve punishments, and this fact differentiates the present from the past explicitly in many ways. That is why many leaders of the past society couldn't be successful leaders in running today's society. Odysseus eventually manages plans by his own rules and creates his own rights, which he lives by, and it sets the tone for the rest of his crew. Odysseus would be a poor leader in today's society based on his dictatorial skills in the book.

Odysseus would be an inferior leader today because of his way of being justice and resolving problems by murdering people. He believes in no sound reasoning but is self-centered and cares how much of a great fighter he is. When Odysseus hears of the suitors in his house, he settles his mind to kill them all before even any attempt to reason with them or warning them to leave. Also, he intends to commit revenge and kill his servants when he believes that they are disloyal to him instead of giving them chance to explain why they have been disloyal to him.

In today's society, you can't go out and kill anyone because you think, in terms of your judgement, what they are doing is wrong. Protecting civilians from social disorder, we live by the interference of legal systems or civil laws where people have the right to prove their innocence if thought to be guilty. If Odysseus killed someone today because he thought that the person didn't take his order satisfactorily, he would go to jail by the law. If giving the death to people were the answer to everyone's problems, then there would never be peace and civil rights in our society today. Odysseus has his own way to prove, think and do things and in today's society that is not taken lightly.

Odysseus is depicted as an unskilled leader, because he is easily distracted and gets side tracked persistently. If it were important for him to get back home to his family, then he wouldn't have been so easily side tracked and enticed by other women. He would have stayed focused on his trip back to Ithaca no matter how things turn out. Good leaders and sailors set out on a journey with their plans, and they are suppose to stand their grounds until their journey has been successfully accomplished. "A mutinous crew undid me - that and a cruel sleep. Set it to rights, my friends. You have the power. (232)"

Odysseus crew thinks that Odysseus conceals the gold and sliver treasures, so they begin to distrust him and doubt his leadership ability. This is Odysseus's fault, because he doesn't inform his crew of the gift that the good king, Aeolus, gives the treasures to him to encourage the crew to return home to Ithaca. His lack of trust for his crew backfires, and in return, they unleash the bag of wind, and as a result, they are brought back to the king who forces them off the island. The mistrust and miscommunication of Odysseus and his crew lead them nowhere but back into the ocean and further away from there home.

A good leader needs to take initiative to be a good communicator. It is important that they are honest with their people and throw out no surprises at them. Many different people have their own views as to what a good leader is, but almost everyone would agree that a leader has to be out to help his people and not just think of themselves. In the book the Odyssey, it seems as though sometimes Odysseus forgets what he is fighting for he just would go from adventure to adventure and fights a new monster and wins another battle. Odysseus has a way of bragging about himself when he should have been watching out for himself and his crew together. "Cyclops - if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so - say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, Laertes's son who makes his home in Ithaca! (227)"

In modern society, one person can not solve the problems of the world by themselves. Importantly, for everything a person does, they should interpret that there are consequences so they need to be rational and think of the best way to solve a problem. Odysseus thinks that he can take on any problem himself with his own belief and power, and basically he can stay in the world of Odyssey, but in society today, there is more than one's own power and judgement; people collaborate with each other to fix mistakes, solve problems and help each others with things worked out.

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