Leadership Vs. Tyranny: Difference between revisions

Leadership is not about controlling people; it's about caring for people and being a useful resource for people. The best leaders help people work together and do their best to achieve an important goal. Their actions focus on accomplishing as a team much more than any one person could accomplish alone. Leadership is about helping people attain the goal, not about aggrandizing the leader. Tyrants don't serve and servants don't control. Tyrants are not leaders, and any contrary myths need to be exposed as false. Scapegoats are chosen as convenient proxies. They are easy targets chosen to accept blame, displaceresponsibility for problems from where it truly belongs, and to distract attention from the actual problems. Tyrants identify scapegoats to distract attention from their own misdeeds. The scapegoat is not the problem, don't be distracted, look elsewhere for the real cause. Analyze cause and effect more carefully, avoid the fallacy of disproportionate responsibility, determine more accurately where responsibly actually belongs. Draw attention away from the scapegoat and toward the real problem.Courage can overcome fear. The tyrant uses fear to keep us from seeing alternatives. In the face of his intimidation we typically freeze, flee, become anger locked, or submit to his demands. But if we can focus, summon our courage, relax, comprehend the situation, and develop alternatives, we can create options for moving forward constructively. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks  became famous for refusing to obey bus driver  James Blake's order that she give up her seat. This action of civil disobedience started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which is one of the largest movements against racial segregation. In addition, this launched Martin Luther King, Jr., who was involved with the boycott, to a prominent position among his people and in the civil rights movement. She has had a lasting legacy worldwide.During the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989  an unarmed man stood in the center of the street, halting the tanks' progress. He reportedly asked, “Why are you here? You have caused nothing but misery.” As the tank driver attempted to go around him, the “tank man” moved into the tank's path. He continued to stand defiantly in front of the tanks for some time, then climbed up onto the turret of the lead tank to speak to the soldiers inside. After returning to his position blocking the tanks, the man was pulled aside by onlookers who perhaps feared he would be shot or run over. Time Magazine dubbed him “The Unknown Rebel” and later named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Tyrants are often unprepared for truly courageous and well-planned responses. Human needs are simple and largely non-material. Although autonomy is a human need, steak for dinner is not. In choosing to endure tyrant's abuse you may be choosing to buy a steak dinner at the cost of your autonomy. This is usually a bad deal. Choose simplicity over oppression.There are always alternatives. Reject the obvious alternatives, create new options, and find another way. Innovation creates opportunities. Dialogue creates solutions that other forms of communicationjealously hide. If you can't think of alternatives and feel there is no way out then talk to more people and generate more ideas.  No one is powerless.  We each have our own sources of power. The boss depends on the secretary, the doctor depends on nurses and patients, and the manager depends on the workers. Mahatma Gandhi  was the skinny little brown man who summoned the power to free India from British colonial rule. Find your source of strength and apply it to the problem at hand. Don't play the victim, you always have choices. Speak up and speak out about what you want and expect from the relationship. End the trespassing and assert your right to dignity, respect, and freedom. Describe the actual, unfair, and unwanted asymmetry of the relationship, how it makes you feel, why it is unfair, and then describe the fair and symmetrical relationship you expect. Say what you mean, but don't be mean. Don't insult, humiliate, or threaten the control freak. Confront the control freak, and plan how to expose and disarm the tyrant.Helplessness can be learned and unlearned. Oppression teaches you to become passive and stop trying to help yourself. But you can reassess your options and decide to take action to end the oppression.Everyone, even the tyrant, is vulnerable. Study the tyrant to find out his weaknesses. Balance the power. Apply your strength where he is most weak. Calmly describe how natural forces resisting the tyrant will eventually defeat his efforts.It is possible to speak truth to power. Don't be distracted or intimidated by the tyrant's positional power, reputation, physical appearance; wincing, bellowing, or rolling eyes; physical surroundings, or other attempts to emphasize a disparity in power and importance. Do not tolerate ego rants. Do your homework, get the facts right, and present your case clearly, calmly, and persuasively. You can challenge an authority by respectfully asking: “How do you know?”, “Why do you say what you say?”, “What is theevidence to support your position?”, and “Who disagrees with you?”Rana Husseini  spoke truth to power and exposed the shame of Jordan when she unveiled the common but unspoken crime of honor killings  there. Honor killings refer to the murder by family members of a woman who is raped or is said to have participated in illicit sexual activity. The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that is considered as dishonoring her family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life. Across the globe, women who are beaten, brutalized, and raped can expect police, prosecutors, and judges to humiliate victims, fail to investigate cases, and dismiss charges. Honor killings accounted for one-third of the murders of women in Jordan in 1999. She wrote a series of reports on the killings and launched a campaign to stop them. As a result, she has been threatened and accused of being anti-Islam, antifamily, and anti-Jordan. Yet, Queen Noor  took up the cause, and later, the newly ascended King Hassan cited the need for protection of women in his opening address to parliament. The conspiracy of silence has been forever broken thanks to this courageous young journalist who risks her life in the firmbelief that exposing the truth about honor killings and other forms of violence against women is the first step to stopping them.The tools of influence are symmetrical. The techniques the powerful use to influence the oppressed can also be adapted by the oppressed to influence the powerful.Extremists discount, dismiss, distort, dispute, or deflect important evidence. But facts are stubborn. As the facts become more widely known and understood, the unreasonableness of the tyrant's position becomes more clear to more people. His support eventually dwindles as more people recognize the emperor has no clothes. There is tremendous power in alliances.  None of us are as smart or powerful as all of us. As the scope of the tyrant's impact increases, as more people suffer from his abuse, the more people there are to pool their resources and energy in overcoming his grip. Find the people who are suffering from the tyrant's grip, recognize the common problem you are facing, and find a way to band together and effect positive change. India's independence movement, labor unions, the women's suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, and the anti-apartheid cause all provide prominent examples of oppressed people working together to overcome powerful forces, abuse, and tyranny.You can choose your battles. You can decide when to ignore, yield to, appease, or accommodate the control-freak's requests. You can also decide when to confront the unreasonable behavior and insist on change. Keep an effective strategy in mind to help you choose your battles carefully. With careful preparation, you can always walk away.Government exists only to serve and benefit the governed. The United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights  clearly states: “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures”. Tyrants often forget this and erroneously believe the purpose of government is to benefit only themselves. Insist on a government that represents and serves the people.Privilege and power are distinct from talent. A rich, powerful person may not be very bright while a poor person might be very bright, hard working, creative, and talented. Don't be mislead by image, boasting, intimidation, pedigree, and posturing. Demonstrate leadership through hard work, not privilege. Apply your talents regardless of your present social position. Seek stature, not status. There are paths of progress other than growth.  Flowers develop by unfolding their potential, not by becoming the biggest flower.  Bigger is not always better. There are important alternatives, including: peace of mind, integrity, giving and gaining the respect of others, tranquility, clean air, clean water, the beauty of nature, a healthy environment to enjoy now and sustain for the future, family, friendships,community, safety, stability, trust, leisure time, meaningful work, authentic experiences, reciprocity, good health, reduced stress, ongoing education, fun, enjoyment of the arts, transcendence, and making significant contributions that help others. Tyrants often ignore or diminish the value of these genuine alternatives to growth, expansion, and conquest. Challenge the assumptions that growth is good and inevitable. Pursue genuine progress, and don't be seduced by the idea that growth represents progress. Reject the insatiable tyranny of more.We are all connected. We all rely on others—locally and globally—for needed resources such as food, water, health care, energy, labor, land, and education. The tyrant depends on the oppressed.Tyranny is childish. Tyrants lack self-control, sound judgment, refined character, respect, wisdom, and transcendent purpose. Tyranny is a tragically unleashed version of a child's selfish tantrum. It is ineffective; tyranny has a clear history of tragedy and failure. In retrospect it often looks preposterous. We can learn to recognize it, call attention to it, act as responsible grownups, and not tolerate it. Maturity is about using wisdom to achieve constructive results. [b]Tyrants lack the wisdom of: understanding the intrinsic similarities we all share, interconnections, relatedness, compassion, respect, accurate history, symmetry, inquiry,humility, and responsibility. Adults don't tolerate tantrums, there is no reason to tolerate tyranny.[/b]Oppression constrains the tyrant. Sustaining oppression requires a narrow worldview based on falsebeliefs. The false belief that women are not smart enough to vote, the false belief that slaves are subhuman, the false belief that Jews are to blame for the problems of Nazi Germany, and the false belief that the poor are stupid were each essential to maintaining the power of the tyrant and sustaining the oppression. When these false beliefs are dismissed and corrected, we gain a more accurate understanding of our world and we all benefit. Expose the lie and strengthen the community.Sunlight is the best disinfectant. The most credible and respected organizations operate in an open atmosphere. Their operations and decisions are transparent and can be easily examined by interested people inside and outside the organization. Organizations that are well run and are responsible to the public not only accept criticism and suggestions, but embrace them. If questions from constituents, the public, or the media make leaders or other responsible parties become uncomfortable, evasive, or disingenuous, the questions are usually valid and the answers are not. People who feel uncomfortable under the bright light of scrutiny and criticism often have something to hide. Shine the light on tyranny to purify it.Tyrants are lonely, afraid, insecure, and human. They deserve our compassion, even as we withhold our obedience and submission. The many causes of tyranny, described at the beginning of this page, show that tyrants are often driven by deficiencies, inadequacy, loneliness, or fear. Tyrants often see themselves as the victim. Adolf Hitler titled his autobiography “Mein Kampf”, “My Struggle”. Perhaps if they can connect in authentic relationships with caring people, their pain can be soothed, and their behaviors can improve. Even the nastiest tyrants are only human. Understand the similarities you share with them. Connect with them on a human level. Pity the poor tyrant. Have you hugged a tyrant today?