Leadership Vs. Tyranny

Our planet is evolving into a coalescence of collective race fields which create Group Consciousness and this is not a choice, it is a fact during the Ascension Cycle. This means we will need to become aware of what Group Consciousness means and how it impacts us in our day to day life, as well as every relationship we have on this planet.

In any type of organization or Group Consciousness it is extremely challenging to navigate in uncleared individual and group Negative Ego behaviors. Negative Ego behaviors are usually entwined with low ethical conduct which damages building trust between people in order to communicate transparently and honestly about a variety of topics. In order to evolve and learn how to build basic Group Consciousness communication skills we each must develop commitment to hold accountability to our personal circumstances and the GSF Behaviors that each of us choose to demonstrate every day.

This information is to help better discern the qualities of Leadership Vs. Tyranny in Group Consciousness or in any type or organizational structure.

Discerning Tyrants and Controllers

Tyranny is about the abuse of power over others through a variety of methods; deception, lying, manipulation,Mind Control, bullying and intimidation. Whether it's a pushy person, a control freak, a bully, or an outright tyrant, the problem is the same: their goals are always more important than yours. A difficult, pushy person has gone too far again. They are bossing you around, acting selfish and self-important, threatening you, making demands, barking orders, and abusing their power. Control freaks, imperative people, and tyrants exercise power in a harsh, cruel, or destructive manner. They are oppressive, harsh, arbitrary people who make life difficult for too many of us. They are annoying, inconsiderate, and demeaning. What are they thinking? How can we respond constructively?

Caution: Control-oriented people as described here expect to control the people and events around them. Exposing or challenging their tactics could provoke their anger and result in severe and possibly dangerous retaliation. Expect to be a target of their backlash. Protect yourself and others who could become targets before challenging a control-oriented person.

Defining Tyrants and Tyranny

1. Absolute rule 2. Abusing power 3. Selfish power 4. Unmitigated power 5. Unrestrained exercise of power; abuse of authority.

Difficult people, control freaks, imperative people, and bullies push us around during our day-to-day encounters. They go out of their way to turn every encounter into a dominance contest and often insist on getting the last word. They insist you do it their way, dominating so many trivial issues as well as the more important ones. Going out to dinner with a control freak can easily become an ordeal. Choosing the restaurant, deciding where to sit, what to order, what fork to use, how much to tip, how long to stay, who pays, how to pay, and what to do next all has to be done their way. Tyrants, dictators, despots, autocrats, authoritarians, imperialists, fascists, Czars, Nazis, and monarchs practice their tyranny, totalitarianism, absolute rule, and domination on a larger and more destructive scale.Tyranny leads to oppression, the sustained humiliation of a group of people.

The oppressed people are suppressed, limited, or controlled by unjust use of force or abuse of authority.

Negative Ego Behavior of Tyrants

Tyranny can creep into our thoughts as Negative Ego behavior to a greater or lesser degree. Here are some categories, arranged in increasing degrees of dominance and disregard for others.

Leaders Vs. Tyrants

Tyranny is no substitute for leadership and should never be confused with leadership.

Healthy Self Control

It is certainly important for us to develop self control and awareness of ourselves and have discipline over our impulses in many aspects of our lives. Self-control is an important attribute of Spiritual Maturity, and an essential component of interconnection and feeling empathy for humanity and the planet. Achieving a healthy balance of self discipline and self control is an essential element of personal responsibility and accountability. Loss of self control leads to anxiety, unhappiness, anger, resentment, stress, feeling helpless, and even depression. Abdicating one's personal power over self control, by acting powerless, and playing the Victim-Victimizer role playing, is irresponsible and self destructive. But keep in mind that our personal and spiritual freedom ends where other's begins. One must honor human beings and life force in order to achieve a healthy balance with self discipline and control with considering the rights and needs of others and having respect for others.

Discern Competence

Leadership competence is successfully meeting an optimum challenge in a group environment which is similar to the capacity of a basic human need as, exerting healthy personal self control and self discipline in one's life. These are requirements of self mastery before leadership competence in any group environment is possible. By paying attention to consistent and demonstrated behaviors in leadership, and having awareness of Negative Ego, Tyrant behaviors, Pain Body, Lack of Empathy and other Archontic Deception Behaviors, one can develop much more accurate assessment of conditions, therefore improved discernment.

To help with a benchmark in making one's own personal and private assessment of the competency of the leadership of a Group Consciousness, spiritual community or other project group, and the values which are espoused, one applies “trust building” inquiries toward the leadership and the group’s mission or project statement. This is a measurement of energetic and verbal cohesion, does the group behave in alignment to the words and values which are communicated?

Is there a representation of competence and ability with the leadership role and is it demonstrated in ways that are competent and trustworthy? Can you place yourself in the leadership position? What human behaviors are required to respect and honor the rights of all people? See Law of One.

Reducing Anxiety

What are control freaks and other bullies thinking? They have several perceptions and beliefs that are out of balance and potentially destructive.

The mistaken belief that what I can control fully, cannot hurt me drives the Negative Ego behavior of many control freaks. Others are driven by their internal fear that they will lose control, or at least the needed autonomy, altogether. Their anxiety results from vulnerabilities that the control freak tries to eliminate by controlling every aspect of the environment and the people in it. They try to control every perceived threat, whether real or imagined. They lose track of what they can change and what they cannot change. They choose an ineffective approach to coping with their anxiety by controlling and manipulating others around them.

The Consumptive Modeling of energy vampirism that exerts control over others and manipulating scenarios is entirely exhausting. Uncontrollable adverse events often lead to learned helplessness and extreme mismanaged stress. Exerting control prevents learned helplessness, feeling powerless. Tyrants reduce their own fear by removing anyone who poses a threat to their needs, belief systems, or whatever else.

Perfectionism

An obsession with perfectionism and when driven by the fear of failure may also result in manipulating and controlling behavior. Perhaps the control freak just cares more than you do about the goal. They may see the goal as much more important than the human relationship, and they don't have the skill or see how they can preserve both. The control freak is deathly afraid of personal failure, which means to them a lack of self worth, thus, they do not trust anyone else to get it right. If one is in a job with a micromanaging boss it may be helpful to try to establish a better working relationship, through compassionate feelings of empathy and concern. While demonstrating one's interest, concern, dedication, knowledge, and competency; keep the boss informed, and request more autonomy in the work or project. Address any fears, apply effort to understand the pressures they may face from their point of view, and they may allow you the space you need to contribute your best.

Impatience

Often impatient people usurp control in an attempt to speed events along and get more done. Many times taking the shortcut does not help anyone to get better results any quicker. Patience is a one of the Spirits of Christ and is developed to learn better self control and discipline in one's mental focus. Impatience creates self entitlement, while Patience creates the inner discipline to earn Virtues upon developing one's own skill and competency. This quick-fix rarely works and is hidden behind many layers of facade which is built upon a house of cards ready to fall.

Low Self-Esteem

The biggest secret of a Tyrant is that I am not as good as I make myself to appear to be to the public. My public image has to be controlled at all cost and a image is projected to be what the public wants rather than the truth. Because the Tyrant feels inferior, the Tyrant generates ego defenses or ego pathology to act superior. With low self esteem the only opinion I have of myself is the opinion that others have of me. How I feel depends entirely on what others think of me and assign as a value. I depend desperately on other people's approval to establish and maintain my feelings of self-worth. Thus, the Tyrant may control or even humiliate others first in so that the others do not humiliate them. These people governed by Negative Ego and ruled by the Pain Body do not understand that their self-worth and dignity is intrinsic and is not provided by others. Also, tyrants evaluate their stature to be achieved on an absolute scale, and is not evaluated in comparison to others.

First Person-Viewpoint

We all view the world from our unique first-person viewpoint and perspective. But if other people's viewpoints cannot be comprehended, or there is a Lack of Empathy towards others, the viewpoint or ideology becomes disconnected, uncaring, unchecked, fixated, obsessed and destructive. This is the root of Negative Ego. The belief (or fear) that “no one can get the job done as well as I can” or “if you want it done right, do it yourself” drives many control freaks to interfere, bosses to micro-manage, and poor leaders to manipulate or overreach. Along with their first-person viewpoint, and inability to feel compassion for others position, their fear of failure drives them to control every aspect of their world as they attempt to ensure success and reduce their anxiety. In any case the control freak is preserving their own selfish interests at the expense of other's. Children are born believing they are at the center of the universe; tyrants never outgrow this belief.

Disconnected and Unaware

Some tyrants and control freaks are enmeshed in the Negative Ego and Pain Body and in most cases just do not know any better and are unaware of more positive and effective approaches to achieving goals. Perhaps self destructive habits, addictive tendencies and abuse is all they have ever known. Many tyrants have been conditioned to learn the only approach they ever witnessed in dealing with other people is to abuse and control them. Perhaps one can have compassion for their Negative Ego ignorance and help them learn better approaches to building relationships based on trust.

Responding to Tyrants

We can choose how we respond to tyrants. There are alternatives to oppression.Overcome our Fear:Tyrants exploit our primal fears and we typically cower from them. We are seduced by their influence and succumb to their threats as we are easily blinded by fear, anxiety, shame, hate, or guilt. We yield to their tantrums. Fear can easily lead to primal thinking, tunnel vision, and panic. But courage can overcome our fears and with careful and creative planning we can confront the tyrant.

Disengage: If you don't like it, change it. If you can't change it, leave. Acknowledge the oppression, understand the tyrant, consider your alternatives, and choose your battles carefully. Decide what you choose to change and what you choose to avoid. If this is just not a situation where you have the strength, interest, resources, or will to change now, you may decide to disengage and live to fight another day. If your boss is a tyrant arrange for a reassignment or leave the organization.

Tower, Don't Cower: Although the typical reaction is to cower in response to the tyrant's threats, there is a more elevated and enlightened viewpoint. If we recognize the many deceptions and fallacies tyrants rely on, and recognize tyrants as the lonely and childish school-yard bullies they are, then we can avoid being bullied and controlled by them. Spoiled brats do not deserve the attention they demand. Uncover, dispel, and shatter the myth . This viewpoint recognizes these powerful truths: Dignity is intrinsic to every human. It does not have to be earned, it cannot be granted, and it cannot be taken away. The tyrant can neither strip you of your dignity nor can he provide you with dignity. We all share a long list of intrinsic similarities. You remain a worthy human being regardless of what the tyrant does. It is your own choice, your own asset, do not squander it. The oppressed are no less worthy than the powerful.

The tyrant works to control or eliminate something or someone he sees as the obstacle to his goals. He has named the evil other, he hates it, and it must be destroyed. But choosing to hate is an ineffective shortcut that avoids the hard work of analyzing the problem in depth. Hating attributes blame incorrectly; it misallocates right and wrong. To defuse the hate, assess the situation from another perspective, analyze the problem in more depth, identify the real causes, eliminate the errors in thinking, and move forward with an effective solution. The best leaders are the best servants.

Leaders Care about People

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?

Overcoming Tyrants

Everyone experiences fear, including fear of humiliation. Courage can overcome fear. We are responsible for our own choices. We all have sources of power we can draw on. Authentic self-confidence increases our power. Inquiry, evidence, and argument are powerful tools for uncovering what is. Alliances can increase our power. We each have our own important stories to tell. Tyrants use the trappings of power to enhance their image. Tyrants suppress and manipulate opponents by exploiting their fears. We often respond to image before we respond to substance. Image is not substance. You can speak truth to power. Tyrants respond differently to compassion than they do to threats, dominance, or humiliation. All things must pass; even tyranny is impermanent.

Quotations

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” ~ Lord Acton

“He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself.” ~ Philip Massinger

“Humanity is not divisive, but inclusive.” ~ Neriah Lothamer

“No one can take advantage of you without your permission.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Never feel overwhelmed when you are overwhelmed with evidence of injustice.” ~ Ralph Nader