‘The idea of Leadership’
By: Sajai D. Halo
Tags: Power, Freedom, Leadership, Corruption, Revolution

‘The idea of Leadership’

The words “leadership” and “leader” are words that have brought me a lot of discomfort for a long time. Two definitions of ‘leader’ from Merriam-Webster that stand out to me are the following: “a person who has commanding authority or influence” and “a person who directs a military force or unit”. What bothers me is that the definitions tell you what such a title is entitled to, but not what it takes to have it. It doesn’t specify that in either word and I’ve checked in several dictionaries.

If I look up the definition for doctor, the first thing you’ll see on Google is this: “A person who is qualified to treat people who are ill.” For a lawyer you will get, “a person who practices or studies law, especially a solicitor/barrister/attorney.” And for mechanic you will get “a skilled worker who repairs and maintains vehicle engines and other machinery.” I’m sure there are others that may stray from this, but even in more varying examples like Journalist & Teacher, we tend to associate them with their job and responsibilities first — not the power they’re entitled to. You’ll probably find in most job descriptions, it’s more about what’s done in their relation towards the public, and less about the power attached to it.

So, why is leader different? ...Probably because it’s hard to describe. The word itself is meant to identify an idea rather than an actual responsibility, despite being a title that empowers the free will of the “selected few” over others. My more controversial take is that it would be highly inconvenient for folks that have a stake in the current state of things if it were any different. Focusing more on the power aspect could make a person care more about who shouldn’t hold the title versus who should. The idea of a leader is flexible anyway, so who cares right? As long as it’s not “X” person- we should be fine 🤷🏾‍♂️…

The topic of ‘who should be the leaders’ isn’t even in the later discussions most cases because as a mass populous — we tell ourselves that we can’t afford the effort it would take to answer such a complex question. Which is why we tend to allow other ‘leaders’ to pick our leaders for us. Unfortunately, too many of these ‘leaders’ tend to operate from the same damn definition: “a person who has commanding authority or influence”. They don’t see the people involved or how regular folks are being affected, they just see the power. Maybe not in all cases, but this is a common enough trend. At this point what are we left with? Well…

Look around. In a world ruled by the few, the many are trapped into a paradigm of “who’s the bigger-bad-guy?” rather than “who’s-going-to-do-the-right-thing?” I’ve been guilty of this in the past myself, but it’s time I held myself accountable. It’s time for all of us to hold ourselves accountable. Making choices provided by the broken system will lead to more broken results. Within the context of the U.S. elections — it’s basically, “pick your preferred color of poison.” There’s two flavors and selecting either kills us more and more each time we submit to the game. At least in America we get to ‘choose’; some places have leaders that barely allow a voice. The bottom line is, we are all told to play a game that goes against our best interest. And since power is the real point of being a leader these days, it begs the question of where’s the merit in having one?

I’m a little surprised I had this much to say regarding this topic. I must be pretty frustrated. Not sure what the future holds. At the very least, I’m hoping to help create discourse to push for what the word ‘Leader’ should really mean, and what the point of being one should really be. For me, it’s merit: “to be worthy of; deserve.” But what does that mean some might ask? Well, I know what it means for me; I guess that can be a topic for another article.

Thank you for reading! 🖖🏿 I’m a multi-disciplinary Creative Freelancer who works across creative writing, photography, and video editing. I enjoy film, martial arts, and rambling about film and martial arts. I’ve been based in metropolitan Japan– the Kanagawa area predominately.

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Cite — https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leader

— https://www.dictionary.com/browse/merit