We know there are dictators. We know there are gang leaders and tribal leaders and revolting people who lord it over others. There has been a huge amount written about what makes a tyrant and why most of them have been men, but what makes a follower? These men are kept in power by those around them.
They say that Stalin lay in his office dead for three whole days before anyone had the courage to approach him and find out what was wrong. Many of us saw Saddam Hussein picking out individuals from his ‘parliament’ to have them taken away and killed. Why do men and women allow themselves to be abused in this way? How does fear of a lion lead us to make better weapons to kill lions and fear of our leaders make us wimps?
There are probably two main reasons. Firstly we want to be a leader too, we want power and seeing it wielded by another does not take away our desire to keep the position open in case we can succeed to it. Secondly we gain status by following, by not making the decisions or by following through on the decisions made by someone else. We don’t have to think about it, we can just concentrate on surviving.
Following is the easy option.