Saturday, December 10, 2005

Your leaders might not be leading you straight

"Life may have no meaning. Or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I disapprove."
- Ashleigh Brilliant

The novelist has an interesting way of demonstrating the arrogance of people who want to control not just their own lives but the lives of others.

Nature imbued us with the need to be either leaders or followers. Leaders, as defined by nature, must work for the benefit of the whole group, which includes all of the followers.

Think of the political and religious leaders you know. Does each work for the greater benefit of the whole group or your individual benefit, or both? If not, the leaders who fail that criterion should not be followed. Furthermore, those leaders should not be believed because they will preach doctrine which benefits themselves more than their followers.

No matter how good an argument is about why a leader should have more power, if that additional power does not directly benefit the whole group or you, or both, that argument is unnatural and should be discounted. The leader who advanced the argument should not be supported.

Moreover, a leader who proposes an argument for additional power by creating more damage from fear than benefit from the results of the additional power should also be avoided.

If your group does not provide benefits for you as well as for others, you should find a different group. The devil you know is not necessarily inherently better than someone you don't know.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to put life into perspective in a complex world.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

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