Monday, October 29, 2012

Part 2: Leadership

I chose to do my blog entry on leadership.


Leading people is something of great responsibility that people should not take lightly. Not many people are born leaders but the ones that are must realize how important their actions are and how what they do reflects upon the people they lead. In One Flew Over the CuckCoos nest, McMurphy is a born leader. He’s opinionated, charismatic, and has many leadership qualities. He leads the other patients in rebellion against the rules Nurse Ratched has created in the asylum and helps to give them newfound hope. I personally believe in the beginning he was doing this for selfish reasons. He saw himself as invincible and led the other patients for his own entertainment. In part 2 though, he soon realizes the power Ratched has over him, how she decides when he is able to leave the asylum, before this he thought he had to only serve his previous term. After learning this new knowledge he becomes less confrontational and more subdued, following the rules Nurse Ratched has in place. It becomes too late for this though. He has started something amongst the patients of the mental hospital, he has lit the fire of rebellion and with every waking day it grows larger in their spirits. McMurphy knows he’s the only one that can lead the other patients to having a better life in the hospital. He reinstates his rebellion with Ratched, fully knowing this time the consequences he may face. I see this as heroic and an example of martyrdom, the signs of a great leader. I think great leaders don’t lead because they want too, I think they lead because they have too. We need people like McMurphy cause if we didn’t have people like him are world would be much different, I think it would be a much darker world.

I’ve been watching a lot of Game Of Thrones lately. I actually finished 2 seasons of the show in a matter of a couple days, 20 hours of television in two sittings. In some way I’m kind of proud of this and I don’t know why haha. It just an awesome show and I highly recommend it. The reason I bring up Game of Thrones though is because the show deals with many different leaders. It’s about the struggle of many different people fighting to become king, fighting to become the leader of the 7 kingdoms. Each different person could be leaders for their own different reasons and I believe that in the end of the series, the person who is meant for the job will become the rightful king. The others will fail because of their intentions of why they want to be a leader. A leader doesn’t choose to be a leader, a leader is chosen by the people.

The pursuit of finding leaders has been glorified in our society I think. If you watch any of the coverage on the current American election I think it’s a fucking gong show. Two politicians picked by not the people of America, but picked by the corporations that have decided to fund their campaigns. They have not the interest of the people in mind but the interests of their backers in mind and whoever ends up winning doesn’t change anything. We need real leadership in society, we need someone we can believe in. 4 years ago Obama promised the American people hope, and he failed them, showing he is too just a puppet of wall street. I hope the idea of a true leader isn’t dead in society. My views are pessimistic as of late though, and I fear we will forever be led by idiots.