Follow the leader

2008-09-30 13:08

David Moseley

When I was in matric we had the usual number of dolts selected as prefects. There were the absolute no-hopers pulled from out of the blue - library cards and Tolkien tucked under their arms - the serious-faced students with leadership ambitions and world domination etched onto their Space Cases, and the typical scattering of able-bodied, addled-minded school sportsmen.

The first team cricket captain was present, as was the rugby captain and, most importantly, so too was the first team scrumhalf. Everyone knows that it's the scrumhalf who pulls the strings in a rugby team, and with a crisp pass to either side, the best left boot at the base of a school-boy scrum and irrepressible charm when berating the referees, the scrummie was ideal leadership material. I mean, that's as good a criterion to select a leader as any, isn't it?

Predictably, there were a few characters who took themselves too seriously and, as is the case in any leadership collective, one who, for want of a more polished phrase, was an absolute moron. Obnoxious, arrogant, self-serving and most probably a little bit brain dead; I believe the teachers thought that if given some responsibility he might not maim any of the younger pupils, or at the very least, stop stealing their cheese sandwhiches.

The younger standards survived, but this grim exercise of "leadership through responsibility" lurked in the shadows for a year, using intimidation rather than respect to get what he wanted. Sound familiar?

That's the problem with people in charge - from parents to teachers to bosses to presidents. Whether you choose them yourselves, or they get chosen by someone else, or they just decide to plonk themselves in for life, you never know what you're going to get. Leadership is a lottery. Even with a vote. What people promise and what they actually deliver are never one and the same.

Look up

Maybe it's in our nature to look up to someone to make our decisions or solve our problems, or maybe some ruthless conqueror realised a long time ago that if you terrify the constituents into submission you'll be set for life and it's become ingrained ever since, or perhaps it was simply a case of writing a book and waiting for the readers to submit and follow without question.

Whatever the case may be, people generally take their cues while looking upwards. But when you need effective endeavour from the men and few women in charge, it rarely materialises.

This is the problem with authority. It's not trustworthy. We're meant to trust what goes on behind high walls, closed doors and the flashing lights of convey vehicles, but as the End of the World aka the Credit Crunch unfolds rapidly in America and the world over, it's plain to see how easily it is to get duped. America, as an ideal, as a leading country, has led the way for so long - with good and bad pit stops along the way.

But it's not a guiding light. It was simply the only super power left and the world followed in its all-consuming path because people follow the man, ideal or power in charge. I look forward to learning Russian in the coming years. Or perhaps Mandarin.

Humans need someone to look up to in order to operate effectively. It certainly seems this way. Without some twit in a nice suit telling us what to do we'd all be running around bashing our heads into concrete walls, right? Could we survive any differently? Would the world cease to function if there was no one was in charge, bellowing orders for the masses to follow? You'd like to think so.

You'd like to think that we all the have the capacity to do the right thing. It's unlikely. It's too much hard work. And it's simply too easy to follow the leader.

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