Keeping Tabs on Leaders

Contrary to what most people might think, the need to verify the realness and substance of formal/ moral leaders, such as political and religious leaders, on the one hand, and the correctness of ideas presented by leaders of thought such as scientists and scholars, on the other hand, becomes more imperative as their influence and social acknowledgement increases.

Not all moral and formal leaders are truly trustworthy. Some lack piety, or even basic human conscience contrary to the image they try to impress. It’s simply a case of abusing other’s trust.

The other day I was reading an article about how some doctors, here in Saudi, would tell certain ladies that female doctors would perform the operation on them, as requested by the patient. And after the lady is put under anesthesia, men would strip her naked of her clothes and perform the operation on her. They don’t rape them or anything, but they consider it inconvenient to comply with the frequent requests of ladies to be operated on by female doctors.

I once trusted a certain person who I considered religious, pious, and a model to me. He turned out to be a child molester and, most probably a rapist of children. What he was basically doing was herding young boys in the name of religion and guidance just to pick them off one by one.

I see this also at work. A certain person starts to build an image of dependability and honesty. And as soon as he feels he has become trusted, and he is awarded with formal positions, a new face emerges, especially in front of those who don’t really matter. The “new” face is not really new, of course; it was merely masked.

Second, leaders of thought can be simply wrong even if there intention is good, and that is very dangerous.

The reason is that such people usually have broad and penetrating influence, which means that the damage resulting if they were wrong would be far-reaching. Furthermore, mistakes by such people are usually difficult to spot either because it’s difficult to doubt them in the first place because of their impressive track-record, or because the sort of mistakes that they might make would be at a level so high that most can’t detect. I once read that the difference between Newtonian physics and Einsteinium physics only appeared in very complex and complicated calculations.

Of course, we don’t want to hinder creativity and positive change. In the end, it is such thinkers who initiate paradigm shifts that uplift whole societies. But again, communism didn’t exactly turn out to be a good idea.

I suggest your read Why Smart Executives Fail. It highlights the many reasons why well-intentioned and competent executives of multimillion dollar companies made mistakes that caused serious damage, even destruction, to their companies. They just didn’t get it right when the stakes were high, and the gravitational pull of reality drew them to the bottom.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, our complex reality plays no favors. If the leader’s idea is wrong, sooner or later, it’ll burst. And as we know, the bigger they are; the harder they fall (with all their followers with them!)

The solution?

Free your mind, and speak your mind. If the leader is for real, he won’t mind answering your questions!

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