Follower, Anarchist or Leader?

The news is filled with agony and horror. Shootings. Of seemingly innocent people; by cops. Then citizen snipers shooting (and killing!) cops, in a city where cops killing civilians is not a history. Guns everywhere. For what? To protect myself from others carrying guns? Like the Old West of yore?

Or guns to protect me from invaders from across the border, or aliens from outer space? Or maybe from anarchists living among us distrusting all forms of government save their own?

Violence. Against people unsuspecting of the attack. Guilty or innocent of what is no longer the point. Gang shootings happen. Guilty on guilty. Black on black. Terrorist on terrorist. Robbers on storekeepers. Pedestrians shot for their wallet or purse.

Guns gone awry. Violence begetting violence. Trust meeting distrust creating more distrust. Chaos begetting chaos.

Is this what we want America? Is this your or our vision of the future?

If you were President of the USA what would you do? Answer that question, please. Answer it with the full force of the power and freedom to act you think the position endows you with. What would you do?

This is an interesting situation to ponder. For one, you are not the President. For two, your understanding of the President’s power is most likely faulty. For three, you and I are in control of the nation’s power, not the President. So, your supposed unlimited power does not exist in reality or fantasy.

And that’s the point.

Leaders lead. Followers follow. If the leader leads and none follow there is nothing accomplished. A small following leads to the same; nothing.

The opposite is not true – followers leading with leaders following. No; that sentence provides the definition of chaos and anarchy.  If the citizenry rises up to lead a movement to wrest control of the nation, anarchy is the tool and the result is revolution.

We know that because we lived it in the 1700’s. It is our national heritage. Our population then was sparse. The population lived in sparsely settled communities spaced far apart. So the sparseness itself was sparse! Defending such a nation of settlements by the imperial power of England was more than difficult. It proved impossible in the end. Something we learned in Viet Nam, too, remember?

Times are different. We are a nation of huge urban areas and densely populated areas. The only sparsely settled areas of the country are out west where the landscape does not support massive social gatherings and communities. But reconnaissance and speedy transport allows defense and offense in such large swaths of territory today.

Revolution is not practical. But chaos is.

How chaotic is our nation? How amenable are we to allowing leaders to lead and we to follow? Are we still distrustful of such leadership? Are we therefore prone to revolts by citizens to the extent of massing chaos? And will this take us to the brink of chaos and over?

I think we all need to press the ‘pause’ button and rest a bit. Ponder the above words. What do they mean? Where are we going? Do we intend to let this happen? Or do we feel a central focus within society to maintain order and build a solution to the problems?

A free press allows much to be written about, stated over airwaves, and touted far and wide. A freedom of assembly allows massing of citizens to talk, exhort, celebrate and make movements happen. Freedom of thought, religion and all the rest allows content of our messages to develop fully and wherever they may.

But the result? Where is order in this? Is goodwill enough? We assemble for major football game tournaments. We gather for the Rose Parade on January 1^st in Pasadena. We gather for Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade on Thanksgiving. Are these peaceable assemblies? What makes them different than those that are not peaceable? Other than the result, but one cannot know beforehand the result.

I think we Americans have some serious thinking to do. We have a rambunctious national election for president lurching all over the nation’s map. By its nature it is upsetting; purposefully so it can persuade people to support specific candidates and points of view. That is how elections are managed so the ballot box result can be had in November every four years.

But the process is reeling out of control. We have lost our discipline. We are not thinking of the issues in depth. We are not employing logic and education to the issues. We are dealing with emotions which heat up uncontrolled behavior. We are whipping up reactions that lead at times to violence. Will this escalate to larger violence and chaos?

No one knows. Our officers in blue are asked to risk their lives to protect the peace and public order. Yet we snipe at them; we question their judgment; we sue them; we jail them while they are in the justice system; their incomes are impounded and their pensions removed. This is the thanks we provide our peace officers?

Chaos has many faces. The innocent and the guilty. The protector and the instigator. The just and the proud along with the scalawag. At what point do the rest of us say enough and empower our leaders to do their jobs?

I suggest to you that the time is here and now to follow or lead. That takes will on both sides of the equation to work.

What will you be? A leader or a follower? And then ask yourself, Why?

July 12, 2016