LessNess-ism: Leaderlessness

I sure can't take credit for this post, but I've had parts of these speeces wandering through my head for the last couple weeks and wanted to get them out there.

"People want leadership Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage and when they discover there's no water they'll drink the sand."

"People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference."

All that said, go watch The American President.
Combine that with I, Robot and you've got yourself a whole bunch of ideas about social theory.
"Why is it that robots, when abandoned, will stand together instead or remaining alone?"

People are social creatures, thank you Great Ideas, Wisdom Literature, and who knows how many other Cair Paravel classes. And this leads us to the ideas taken from the movies above.

Henry David Thoreau (I think) valued the eccentric more than any other person in society. The person who found his cause, his principle to live by, his way of doing things, and didn't sacrifice that for anything. He was even willing to go to jail to prove how committed to that ideal that he was.

But eccentricity isn't something that people want. They don't want to stand above the crowd and point in the opposite direction and scream at the top of their lungs for a change, a reformation. They want to live comfortably within the safety of their own homes and communities and churches, never bothering to effect the society that they so often hate. They are scared to stand alone.

That's where leadership comes from. It's one person willing to take a risk, willing to have the courage to speak out for what he believes and hope blindly that some small part of the ignorant masses will follow him. And if they don't, he disappears. But if they do...

This leads us to another interesting point... The sudden change from fad to fad, leader to leader. People aren't strong enough to stick to one opinion in the face of opposition. As soon as that leader comes under fire, they go and seek a new leader out, one who has some other opinion that they can share, because they don't have enough strength to stand for what they believe unless they are led.

And for now, I'm done with this topic, even at the risk of sounding pessimistic and like I have a horrible view of mankind. But I'm being told that I must leave my computer, so I shall.

But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
~Frost