Where Is The Leader?

All of us are uncertain, nobody knows for sure how life should be lived. But, strangely, we assume that there are people who know and, thus, are capable of leading us.

This longing for an all-knowing person is cultivated; we could enumerate a long list of people that profit from it and make their profession in it, of institutions that base their existence on it. Not less significant are the time-consuming and costly procedures for the selection of leaders. Democracy is, by far, the most notorious. The business community has a whole cult of leadership courses and seminars. The Vatican resorts to white smoke. These procedures contribute to the belief in the leader. This is necessary, because without faith there is no leadership. Time after time we hope that someone has the solution for the problems that emanate from our personal life, for the unstable existence of this organization we are part of, for the chaos that – by definition – we’re living in together.

That it is impossible for such a person to exist seems evident. But we’re not able to fully grasp this. Without overblown self-importance, nobody would aspire to lead. Without the longing to deliver us from uncertainties, nobody would put confidence in a leader. Misery and catastrophe are lots of times the consequence. The excesses are the norm; leaders who get a surplus of self-confidence and lose touch with reality, people who put all their faith in the hands of charlatans, demagogues and tyrants.

In current times, the call for leadership is again shrieking in our ears. But every leader only builds castles from thin air. Constructions to the detriment of many and, when the sea washed away all illusions, to the disenchantment of the believers.

There exists an other possibility; to desert the multitudes of followers, to discover the paths of acting for your own and to confront those who want to submit you. To jump into the unknown.

Disdain authority.