Cost of choosing false leaders
“… Don’t follow leaders, watch the parkin’ meters…”
The above epigraph is an iconic piece of advice from Bob Dylan. When reflecting upon recent events unfolding in around our nation’s capitol, and those of Britain and France, the advice might seem to be a cathartic panacea. Wouldn’t it be great if the London Bridge murderers did not bow down to the altar of al-Baghdadi; what if he in turn did not adhere to a god that demanded subjection of and murder of infidels?
What if Timothy McVeigh did not follow the anti-government extreme right? What if the D.C. baseball field shooter did not follow the false news extreme left?
The problem with Dylan’s line in “Subterranean Homesick Blues” is that it is human nature to “follow leaders.” The panacea just won’t work, as a cursory survey of history shows. For one thing leaders, great, evil, small, skilled, keep popping up. Did Bernie Sanders motivate and inspire shooter Hodgkinson? Maybe. But Hitler did far more motivating with apocalyptic results before that. There were Lenin, Mao, and Jim Jones. If you are troubled or just in need of some helpful solution, there are so many answers. Imagine being broke and unemployed with a family in Munich in 1932. A wave of optimism based upon redemption through national and racial pride takes hold and millions reach for the life-line, the path to prosperity.
Maybe the answer is not “don’t follow leaders” but vet those who are speaking to you through the media, the news, or your teacher. The vetting does not have to be mean spirited but just forthright evaluation of the leader’s premises. Bernie Sanders’ “free education” is a great notion, for example. Who wouldn’t want an educated populace! But how is it free? The kids don’t pay but someone pays the janitor, the cook, the teacher.
Free health care like Cuba? Why did Castro die with about a billion dollars to his name.
A wall on the border with Mexico? Trump is having a difficult time finding the resources. The “Wall” is being vetted by a majority Trump Congress but the answers are not yet there.
All of Al Gore’s predictions about global warming have been wrong. Yet he persists in influencing well-meaning people with presentations of climate doom.
Doom motivates. Pol Pot declared that people with glasses were privileged, monied, and greedy. They would then appropriate what was yours and keep you unequal. So those with glasses were rounded up and killed. That’s doom by class. Germany went through doom by race. As benign a character as Prince Charles in effect advised travelers and residents of London to leave by summer of 2016 because it would be underwater — doom by climate change. And everyone likes and admires Stephen Hawking, maybe the world’s smartest man. He just warned that Earth has 100 years.
So Hodgkinson saw doom from Trump and Republicans and went to fight off doom from “deplorables.” His computer and records reveal a man that indeed followed leaders. Some 50 rifle shots later left tragedy, the deplorables more united, and Hodgkinson met his doom. His leaders not only survive but thrive. There is a picture of him protesting with a sign that reads in part “… the rich must pay their taxes …” There are easily accessible public data centers that show that the rich do pay many taxes, not to mention charity. His leaders imparted to him a doom-by-class idea that indicates otherwise. Nonetheless a Democratic Party official in New Jersey, named Devine, has a social media site titled “Hunt Republicans.”
Doom motivates, and it sells. As it happens one of the most gifted political leaders in our history, Barack Obama, is still the leader of the Democratic Party. His book deal is rumored to be around $50 million. Such a leader could quash “Hunt Republicans” and the flood of incendiary rhetoric, not to mention the Central Park play where Trump is beheaded, simply with a speech. But that would tamp down the ATM which is doom by class and (remembering burning CVS stores and Baltimore neighborhoods) race. And that might impede the race to catch the larger fortune made by Nobel Laureate Gore through doom by climate.
The cost of choosing false leaders is dire. There are alternatives.
Baldridge is a resident of Whitefish.