When a nation or an Aggrieved group of people perceives itself as being challenged by a Rival group, they have the option of competing or attempting to suppress them. If either of those approaches fails, then the resentment of the Aggrieved for the Rival group will grow.
The Aggrieved group may continue to search for a solution or, if despairing, settle instead to be led by someone who comes along with an idea to relieve them of their pain.
But anyone who comes along with such an offer will want something for it.
The person presenting themselves as the problem solver will say to the Aggrieved group, ‘I see your pain, I feel it, and you are right to feel as you do and here I am to fight for you.’
What that person will want in return is the surrender of the group members’ individuality.
When the Aggrieved group gathers to hear the leader, the individual members will not have a question and answer session at the end. Their meetings will not be set to reflect on their doubts and recriminations as to why they have failed. Their meetings will not be set to educate, but instead to affirm their cherished views, regardless of a changing world, all of which the new leader is most glad to validate for them.
The new leader needs room to maneuver, and thus he is not to be questioned. He will do the strategic thinking for the Aggrieved group.
‘I will make you feel good about who you are, as you are now,’ says the mighty leader.
Implicit is that thought and self criticism is to be sacrificed in the interest of feeling. But once you adopt that position, the stage is set for abuse to happen.
Speaking from his elevated stage, looking down on his followers, the leader is promoting a transfer of power from the group unto him.
The leader will ceaselessly remind the Aggrieved group that they are better than their Rivals, that their views should reign supreme, and that the challenge the Rival group poses is, indeed, the reason for all their ills.
The Aggrieved group’s core beliefs are to be seen as immutable. The simpler the communications, the better. Complexity is to be avoided. Tweets are perfect for this exchange.
Left out of the discussion is why the Aggrieved group did not better organize itself to fight against the Rival, instead preferring to blame and disparage.
If the above is familiar to you it is because this is what is happening in America today.
Many Americans have surrendered their power to a leader who never dared to challenge them, just like he did not dare to challenge himself.
There is no real power in political submission but merely the illusion of it.
A mind that does not question itself is a mind that settles for less. It is a mind that defrauds itself. It is a mind that chooses to die.
Oscar Valdes Oscarvaldes.net oscarvaldes@widehumr oscarvaldes.medium.com
Originally published at http://oscarvaldes.net on November 15, 2020.
