Classic leadership requires authority. We can see this in animals, from cockroaches, through pack animals and on to birds and primates. Leadership is not a human invention, it’s in evolution way ahead of us, unless you godswank. We can find consensual systems at animal level too – often brutally enforced. Leadership and consensus can be entirely squalid, and once the shits are in power they are harder to remove than baked on turd with a toothbrush.
I place faith in the idea that we are moving from authority and enforced consensus towards knowledge and evidence based ways forward that are conscious rather than merely instinctual or subject to the ‘survival of the fittest over time’ type of learning. We know it’s too late to start draining the swamp once we’re up to our arses in alligators, but we have shifted the leadership stain from time to time in human history. True we live in a septic tank and the really big chunks rise to the top, but we at least have the notion that our leaders can be given a dose of election Domestos from time to time. The problem is they have both rigged the system and developed immunity.
Current human leadership is drenched in our animal past. But me no howevers on this one buttfucker! I’ve met chimpanzees and dogs with more humanity than many of our leaders and our followership of them. The latest South Park says more than a thousand ships launched to rescue the honour of a man lost through infatuation with a painted whore to a rival. The one where Cartman ‘fucks’ his mother (google ‘watch ncis online’ and find SP by clicking on ‘other websites’ on the left – ignore downloads and close any ads and you’ll get this week’s). Imagine Cartman as more or less any politician or jobsworth DPP (etc.) and you’ll get more grip on strategy than from any executive development programme I’ve taught on.
Allcoppedout's Blog 