The Perils of the Great Leader Complex

It is truly a sad fate to once again find humanity choosing to forget the recent past.  I suppose it is the least arduous path to take in the face of monumental resistance, to align oneself with the monsoon wind and think it a gentle breeze.  Or instead, as much of this country has chosen, to wrap oneself in the cloak of the pretend Martyr and Revolutionary.  To see the monsoon wind not as a natural albeit grand force, but as a coming apocalypse in which the only recourse is to throw aside their better judgment and find whatever simple explanation is close at hand to fling into the colossal force of Nature.

 

1776 is super cool. Like these guys.

This is situation we find ourselves in but nearly three short years after what should have been the revelation of 2008.  That very point at which the petty façade of capitalist salvation, predicated on endless growth bought of the consumption of land and life, was ripped aside for this Nation to see what lie beneath.  We should all remember that Gorgon face of pure corruption, that casino economy financed by speculation even the speculators no longer could comprehend.  Of which could only be propped up by the wealth of a Nation taxed to the brink for financing torture camps and eternal war.  At such a point the only rational course of action would be to force the bankers of Goldman Sachs et. all, the generals and all their patsies at bayonet point into the sea.  Truly exile and poverty would have been a kindness to the lot that attempted at every turn to rob us blind of both our money and our lives.

It was Karl Marx who said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses”, a noteworthy comment on the ability of those to find solace in fantasy. A fantasy upon which to numb themselves from the wounds derived of our mortal world.  We as a Nation soothed our sufferings on Hope and Change, from the upper ranks of a party who has no recent experience with either.  Rather than prepare ourselves to fight an entrenched enemy, we gave in to transferring our uncommon mobilization and inspiration to a charismatic leader’s charm.  America’s fetish with executive power more than overcame any new found tendency for resistance.

 We are a Nation divided by both the reactionary, angry, and profoundly ignorant idols of the Right and a president who, despite the rhetoric of his followers and adversaries, has managed to continue (if not exacerbate!) many of the worst policies of his predecessor.  An interesting thing to note is that the dynamics of the present are in some profound ways the mirror image of the recent past.  During the Bush administration there was a mobilized Left opposition, facing a constantly eroding Right president with diminishing support and no real enthusiasm in the conservative grassroots movement.  Since 2008 we have witnessed the same scenario with the players inverted, as the Right mobilizes with gusto and the Left quietly sits behind their president.  The conclusion that I draw from this natural political phenomena is that this is the result of the overwhelming power of the executive leader upon American political consciousness.

Truly nothing could be more horrifying to any individual who places stock in the political will of the people.  Both parties, the media, and by extension virtually every American, measure their every political thought and deed on the words, both spoken and perceived, of one man.  I would hesitate, however, to declare that this is simply the result of an overly powerful executive branch, for I fear the problem is far more extensive than that.  I believe that this is more properly a symptom of a universal malady, one that touches upon every facet of American life.

A reasonable conjecture in my mind is that this is an ironic outcome of an attempt to ward off this very problem.  In America’s response to the so-called “communist” countries, many of our political intelligentsia believed that as means of warding off the tyranny of the Warsaw pact, that our political freedoms should be supplemented by expanded economic freedoms.  This intellectual and political crusade for free market capitalism has continued to grow relentlessly, seeking at every turn to strike down the very Keynesian safeguards which were implemented to stop exactly what happened in 1929, and nearly happened again in 2008, if not for those very ravaged protections.  Now as history repeats itself as farce, at the beginning of this century we see an even more powerful executive and far more powerful gilded class of tycoons.

The 0.8 Million Dollar Man

This “great leader” syndrome can be seen in powerful effect on the grounds of this very University.  Take for instance last week’s article in the Central Florida Future relating the ever swelling salary of our unelected president (for life) John C. Hitt (http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/hitt-one-of-nation-s-top-earners-1.2533976).  It is perhaps unfair to chide the campus ‘paper of record’ for being overly generous to president Hitt’s $800,000 salary, as it is all too unfortunately believed by students to be worth paying.  However, one can certainly find fault with the very meek criticism raised in their editorial stance within the same issue in which they made a very restrained call for sacrifice on Hitt’s behalf,  

“Some of the university presidents in the Chronicle's study realized that with their respective universities struggling to combat budget cuts it only seemed fair to give some back.  To our knowledge, Hitt hasn't done anything like this but it would be nice for him to exhibit some personal sacrifice for the university he governs — it's not like he can't afford it.”                  

While certainly a reasonable request, one has to wonder why there isn’t more outrage over the sheer size of his contract.  In addition to noting the larger sociological trend of leader worship it becomes necessary to also investigate some of the basic arguments that have been left unattended until now.

            The first issue that has not been adequately addressed in the campus media is how much of UCF’s success can be actually attributed to Hitt himself.  In virtually every defense of Hitt’s enormous paycheck is the simple correlation of any success at UCF to the mere fact that it has occurred while Hitt was president of UCF.  As any half way decent man of science would tell you correlation is not causation.  One could also point out that during Hitt’s tenure as president there have been zero incidents of radioactive mutant rabbit rampages and a continual presence of breathable oxygen at UCF.  However, both of these decidedly positive things are not necessarily the work of John C. Hitt.

            Even in the more mundane successes, while Hitt may have been involved he certainly isn’t the only person to thank for what has happened, while he happened to be president.  Like the CEO of virtually any company in America, the lion share of work and the successes they spawn are not due to the most elite member of the firm, but the tireless work of the many individuals who labor under them.  While I certainly am not in the best position to judge the effectiveness of president Hitt in comparison to previous presidents, I can certainly conclude that Hitt would be absolutely worthless without the work of all the administrators, teachers, researchers, fundraisers, lawyers, janitors, maintenance workers, accountants, secretaries, IT workers, etc. who we all rely on far more.  I can also point out that president Hitt isn’t worth several departments’ worth of workers, which is currently the rate at which we are paying him.

            The first issue that has not been adequately addressed in the campus media is how much of UCF’s success can be actually attributed to Hitt himself.  In virtually every defense of Hitt’s enormous paycheck is the simple correlation of any success at UCF to the mere fact that it has occurred while Hitt was president of UCF.  As any half way decent man of science would tell you: correlation is not causation.  One could also point out that during Hitt’s tenure as president there have been zero incidents of radioactive mutant rabbit rampages and a continual presence of breathable oxygen at UCF.  However, both of these decidedly positive things are not necessarily the work of John C. Hitt.

            Even in the more mundane successes, while Hitt may have been involved he certainly isn’t the only person to thank for what has happened, while he happened to be president.  Like the CEO of virtually any company in America, the lion share of work and the successes they spawn are not due to the most elite member of the firm, but the tireless work of the many individuals who labor under them.  While I certainly am not in the best position to judge the effectiveness of president Hitt in comparison to previous presidents, I can certainly conclude that Hitt would be absolutely worthless without the work of all the administrators, teachers, researchers, fundraisers, lawyers, janitors, maintenance workers, accountants, secretaries, IT workers, etc. who we all rely on far more.  I can also point out that president Hitt isn’t worth several departments’ worth of workers, which is currently the rate at which we are paying him.

            Paying Hitt this much is more than a gross waste of valuable resources at a time we cannot afford to spend them.  It also feeds the great leader complex which is poison to Democracy and the wellbeing of the people.  By overvaluing the contribution of CEO’s, University presidents, and other such powerful leaders we undervalue our own contributions and those of the vast majority of people.  The only conclusion that such a process will lead to is one that can only lead to our own enslavement.