Monday, April 29, 2013

On Leadership


You won't like him when he's angry.   Source

That's the beginning of the big boss fight when 90's Jesus smacked it down with Zeus on a scale more epic than any mere mortal can conceive. That also has absolutely nothing to do with anything. Continuing what I was discussing in my previous article, I'm having to get my GED. Because I'm not made of money (that's some other Eggleton), I'm taking a class so they'll pay for the test for me. They asked for me to write an essay for Language, so I wrote the article below. I did no research, nor did I do an outline. I did it all in one draft. It's a GED class and anybody who can't crap out an essay better than this doesn't deserve a diploma. Without further ado, here's my polished turd of an essay.

LEADERSHIP

   In these questionable times we find ourselves in, one must raise a question of leadership. What makes a good leader? The common man will raise many points in an attempt to grasp such a nebulous concept. He will say that a good leader is somebody he can trust, somebody he can have a beer with, perhaps even somebody who has a good financial history. It seems imperative for the common man to be able to relate to his leader.

   This is why the common man is a fool. He searches for the father he never had, a powerful patriarch to guide and protect him through life. We edge toward a time when we may be led by a matriarch, but even those women we may elect are forced to fill a male archetypal role. The commoners wish to have leaders they may relate to, yet they turn to deceivers who have accumulated more wealth than a thousand common men.

   This seems a cynical view of the wealthy elite, and some may write this off as jealousy. But one must ask, how does such a person become rich? By taking the money of others. This is the basis of all economics. Though theft is considered a horrifying concept, simply outrageous, confidence games are legitimate. What is advertising  but convincing others to give the con man money for products they don't actually need?

   With this being said, our current system invalidates all candidates who aren't millionaires. The common man trusts their leaders? If these men of greed had a knife to a peasant's throat and were offered a million dollars for murder, would they do it? Every commoner, these followers, would say yes. They would then rationalize it by saying that anybody would, but they only do so out of the romance of Stockholm Syndrome. When afflicted by this perversion, a boot on the neck feels an awful lot like a kiss.

   If you want to vote for somebody you trust and vote for a liar, are you in any position to call anybody mad? In this nation where those we trust raid the coffers and murder the citizenry under the guise of protecting national security, we must ask what is missing. It is certainly true that a leader is somebody we can trust and relate to. In branches of civilization beyond the hearthfire, into the towns and cities and counties and  states, all the way up to the national and global levels, we are searching for grander versions of our own parents. As adults, we long for the patriarch and/or matriarch that will protect us from our own decisions and the decisions of others.

   More important than our ability to understand our leaders is their ability to understand us. For us to trust them, they have to trust us. In the ancient world, a king who divides himself from the people was a king who would one day divide himself from his own head. We send the poor to fight our battles overseas while the wealthy never know pain. In ancient Greece, it was the wealthy elite, the kings and noblemen, who protected the others.

   Why was this? Because they could afford the best weapons and armor. A leader is not a sanctified rose, to be spirited away and protected. This is a cult of personality. Leaders are but flesh and blood, mere men and women like us. They are to be starving and bleeding with their people, fighting and working alongside their fellow man.

   Someday, we may stop searching for these perverse mothers and fathers. We may look to elect our brothers and sisters, those who understand us. If the common man may elevate his peers to such a state, he may someday come to have the confidence and loyalty to trust himself to take charge of his own fate. Though we may never see this day when there are no slaves, there are no masters, we can still dream. Dreams are the one thing the thieves may never steal.


And now I give you a picture of a puppy.

Cute, indeed.   Source

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