Leaders, Followers, and the Cave

Two ideas stuck out to me the most from our reading. First, the idea of a subordinate versus a follower was an interesting new concept to me. In the business world, superiors are automatically given a team of people in which they oversee. Our reading suggests that some superiors “mistake” this for leadership, when in fact it is only authority (186). A leader must have followers and “a following must be earned” (186). So, it takes effort from the superior in order to convert subordinates into followers that actually believe and support the actions they are tasked with and the actions of their leader. This distinction is important in terms of the amount of success a superior intends to make, in my opinion. The reading goes onto talk about how a leader can be outlived by their cause if they are able to instill the same desires within their followers (187). Only a leader with followers, not subordinates going through the motions, will find that a legacy can follow them after death.

The second idea that stood out to me was the distinction Mabey makes of the American identity being “individual” and how that affects the way in which people can become leaders and followers (314). Mabey believes that because our society focuses mainly on individual achievement, a group is harder to manifest. I agree with her when she states that a group only grows when it can meet the individual’s beliefs and desires. American society has trained us to think of ourselves first and the big picture second. This thought process can “paralyze many community initiatives” as selfish thoughts can still an entire movement (315). It is crazy to think how much change could be made in our country if we thought as a group first and an individual second. Just as the prisoners in the cave would want to endure everything in the outside world over being chained in darkness, wouldn’t we want to see the potential light that comes from a group enacting change over the grim reality of individualism on a grand scale?