Is there a Leader in the House?

Just a heads up for those few readers that stop by on a regular basis this is gonna be one of those train of thoughts thinking through the fingers type posts. . .

It's been one of those weeks that culminated in a question generating a post this morning - - What is Leadership? What makes someone follow another? I'm finding there are a very few things if anything that might be considered altruistic. There is always a reward or punishment for our actions (and even that can be argued for definition based on the attitude of the person and item involved - - good example of that debate is a suicide bomber).

Yet even with the reward bit undecided people will follow leaders for good or ill - why? Even better question how does one become a leader? Is it some genetic combination that everyone agrees on (Monarchy) or something deeper? Family lines are popular, but there are those that come from obscurity to lead. Usually these leaders come from military or religious lines, however there are exceptions of course, as occasionally it is from the everyday person who finding themselves stuck in the situation do the best they can with it - not because they want to be a leader, it is the last thing they wanted, but because the public demanded it of them. . .

Almost reminds you of the old army gag when they ask for volunteers and all but one in the line takes a nice BIG step back. Then to the amazement of all the mission succeeds and the world is saved, or the world is destroyed but there is no one left to blame :P

Then there is the whole popularity contest - - there is a mixed result here and you can almost hear the thoughts from the girls in the hall at High School - "He's soooo cute, but can he dance?" Instead of matching talents it becomes a choice not of what is best for the group but rather a judgment between Beauty and the Beast. It also appears that humans in general are VERY fickle when it comes to leadership.

National media comes to mind as truth is replaced by propaganda that will justify and deny both sides. (Side Note: Personally I'm trying to figure out if the media is more ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder or OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but that is a different post)

Anyway, with all this information kicking around people sort through it and still attempt to pick a leader - many times while watching people do this you can actually see the Wizard's First Rule kick in:

"People will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true."

or a better way might be to see it direct from the text of the book:

"People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People's heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so all are easier to fool."

With technology increasing the speed of information many issues become only more perplexing and in my opinion begin to shut down many who want to choose but find it more painful than it's worth - it seems information overload has become a common and dangerous strategy especially with the world news media.

Damn - looks like this one is going to have to stew a bit longer as the answer still eludes me.

In the end the only thing that is definite is that a leader must anchor their group not that the "Lead" in "Leader" has any true Pb in it, as leadership styles are as varied as the leaders that use them.