Accidental leadership

This excerpt comes from a particularly insightful comment by madscientist Causes left and right tend to spawn leaders, sometimes by accident. They may been someone who is in the right place at the right time. They may particularly devoted to a cause. They may become some uber-leader's boyfriend. Sometimes they just begin to be looked on as a leader. (I have no idea if any of these is true of markos.) All too often, these leaders begin to notice that people listen to them, that they have some small power. Sometimes, the new leader begins to bask in the power, or to enjoy the adulation. Or both. And sometimes, when this is the case, he uses this to create more power and/or adulation, and those who have enjoyed his leadership are only too glad to give it to him. All too often, this becomes a "cult of personality." When this happens, the freedom of thought in the cult (as it now becomes) is narrowed, and a premium is put on being with the leader. often a sort of priesthood edvolves whih not only seeks to be close to the leader, but also to be the favored to get any new dogma. then they go about making sure that everyone knows the new dogma. They often admonish or punish those with last weeks dogma. This serves to isolate the leader from the negativity somewhat, and serves his status as a cult figure. Unrest is often aimed at the second in command, who can often go mad with their petty power. Others, in this situation, try to become a priest by simply choosing to act as a dogma (or rule, unwritten or otherwise) monitor, hoping to thereby be elevated to priest. Read the full comment here.