There is often talk about "good leaders" but as I see it, good role models at the global, national or even the local levels are few and far between. There are people who are good at what they do as a profession, like an athlete or businessperson, but that definitely doesn't make them an automatic role model for the rest of us, or our children. When it comes to political leaders, they are largely self-absorbed, petty, vindictive who are in their position to serve themselves and their agenda, not the needs for the betterment of the people they are meant to serve.
When I was young, perhaps sixteen or seventeen, I remember considering the idea of leadership and how we are conditioned to follow the leader. The trouble I had was that this means that like my wife following the signals of my lead while dancing, we are also following every mistake the leader makes also. But more than this, especially these days, the leader themselves is not a leader in the sense that we have been conditioned to follow, as they are also being chased. This means that while they might be leading the way for some, the chasers are driving them in predictable directions also. This means that those following the leader, are actually following the path dictated by the chasers.
Let's say that you are walking along with a small group in the savannah and a hungry lion spots you and starts chasing. While people panic, you know you can't outrun it as a group, and while you know you only need to outrun the slowest person in the group, you care for them all and want them all to survive. You can run in any direction, but see a few stands of trees scattered either side of you and think that you might be able to out climb the lion, so you lead the way and make for the closest group of trees. The rest of your group follows closely behind. Just as you approach the closest trees, the rest of the pride of lions emerge from their hiding places and surround all of you.
Did you lead the group well, or lead them into a predictable trap?
I don't know if that is a good way to visualise what I am talking about, but what I am trying to portray is that there are always risks in being a follower, even though it is the leader who will be blamed for the outcomes. The choice to follow is individual, though we can also be conditioned to be more likely to make that choice, as we will often see in political decisions as to which sides we are willing to put our votes and actions behind. And especially in the political arena, the psychology behind it means that even when the leadership moves in a direction we wouldn't have wanted, we have momentum built to keep following, and disdain for any of the other leaders. If we are conditioned to follow someone, we will keep following our default, finding ways to justify the poor directions taken.
I think it is a natural part of human behaviour to want to have a leader to follow, but the complexity of life has changed since we were singular tribes with overarching common goal that directed us all, including the leader. Now, there are so many factions, so many competing conditions and desires, and so many conflicting opinions, with almost zero common goals at any significant scale. Not only this, our conditioning to follow is also being leveraged for profit by a host of platforms and people who have their own agendas, even if the agenda is detrimental to those who follow them.
And as for the chasers, there is so much polarisation, so much topic-based outrage and hatred, that everyone is chasing, attacking, and trying to destroy everyone else. There is no individual "standard" that groups form around, only individual topics, so that people who fight together in one context, become adversaries in the next. Who is followed in one frame, becomes an enemy in the next.
We keep blaming the leaders, but the fact is, a leader is made by its followers. We can blame the politician, but it is our support that places them there. The follower is not a passive party pulled along for the ride, it is an active decision to stay on the ride, to keep taking the twists and turns, even when it is no longer leading to the experiences we want to have. The mess of the world is created by a few people leading the way, but it is supported by the masses trailing behind.
I don't know what the solution is to the current course of the world that is leading us down paths we don't want to go, but I think that we can't rely on those leading the way to change course, because they benefit from the road we are on, and do not want to give up the control they have. There has to be better ways, but I think that in order for them to work, we need to start with the commonalities we all have, and work up from there.
Health, wellbeing, opportunity to grow as individuals.
The challenge is, that in order to have these things as individuals, we need others.
Taraz
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