Don't Take Me To Your Leader
Lead, follow, or get out of the way. That's an old saying. But just try to stay out of the way...
Don’t take me to your leader.
There are born leaders, there are born followers, and then there are people like me. BTW, there are a LOT of people like me. You just wouldn’t know it from the media, because the media are dedicated to the proposition that all people are born with the inherent right to be followers. And who shall they follow? “Influencers” and “Thought Leaders”.
Seriously?
When I first started hearing those terms, I thought they were joking. It’s not that I wasn’t well aware that such people exist, but I thought it was supposed to be kept quiet, subliminal. After all, it used to be that way. But now we have professional Influencers: “Buy this product, because they shipped a bunch of it to me and if I get you to buy it and to hammer on the ‘like’ button of my videos they’ll pay me more money and ship me more stuff, so buy this product!”
And Thought Leaders: “I know I speak for all Americans when I say that we speak with one voice in denouncing the other half of the country for voting for that horrible disgusting person who, by running for office, constitutes an existential threat to our democracy and must be stopped at any cost.” Grown adults fall for that crap!
There’s big money in all of that crap. To the tune of trillions of dollars. That’s why they do it. You didn’t really think it was altruism, did you?!
The Thought Leaders and Influencers don’t try to sell to me and people like me, because they know we can’t be sold to. We buy selectively, based on rational decision-making, not marketing. I deliberately don’t buy many products (or politicians) because of their treating me like I’m stupid enough to fall for that crap.
No, don’t take me to your leader. Don’t expect any of the millions of us who follow no one to go along with you. Don’t present us with the two ‘sides’ with the presumption that we are obligated to pick one or the other. We are not. And, as I occasionally point out, proving that ‘they’ are wrong does not prove that you are right. Satisfying yourself that ‘they’ are horrible people does not establish that you are a good person. Gathering large numbers of people inside your echo chamber only projects your foolishness ever more loudly.
The basic premise of a free society is that we have no leaders. Contemplate that. No leaders. Sure, we have governments to make and enforce laws. But they are not there to tell us what we think, who to like, what to do with our lives. I’ve been around for a while. I’ve been told what to think incessantly, for mega decades. I have not once been asked what I think. Think about that, because I’m pretty certain your experience is identical.
Don’t take me to your leader. But you might want to deliver a message to him for me: “Get the hell out of my life and stay the hell out.”
In keeping with my established tradition of linking songs that don’t quite parallel what I’m saying, but it’s a great song, I give you, “Peaceful Easy Felling”, by the Eagles. Take note of the line,
“…I know you won’t let me down
Because I’m already standing on the ground.”
Influencer/Thought Leader—alternate terms for "shill."
"proving that ‘they’ are wrong does not prove that you are right."
"Thought Leaders" are not big fans of such nuance.
Insightful thoughts today, as usual.