This video is applicable in many ways today. The biggest theme I think is perception. In a society of so many unknowns, how do we really know what is true or right? This relates to a theme we covered in 102 about questioning authority. There becomes a time in which that the community must hold authority accountable to keep them true. If the community does not then what we all know will be false.
The prisoner who escaped out of the cave was a leader in that community. He took a step that nobody had done before which is charismatic. However, he became more of a leader once he went back to the other prisoners. He endured the burden by knowing these prisoners were seeing something that was not true. As a leader I believe you run the risk of carrying that burden of a community.
I definitely agree that being a leader has a burden attached. There is the saying that says ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ and I think that applies here. Sometimes as a leader, you are forced to know things that are hard to know but are necessary to be an effective leader.
I do believe leaders carry burdens. They are tasked with more responsibility. They are held at a higher standard and must also help their followers.
We also talked about the idea of perception in class when we talked about charismatic leadership: it doesn’t really matter if an individual is inherently a “good” or “bad” person as long as they are perceived as good by their followers. Leaders, and charismatic ones in specific, use the tactic of manipulation in order to reach their following. Whether or not that manipulation is being used for the common good should be challenged, which is why I agree with your point that a community must hold their leaders accountable.
I definitely agree that it is important to hold people accountable. When there is no form of checks and balances it is almost hard not to become a tyrant leader or at minimum a toxic leader. At the same time, I definitely see how leaders definitely do carry burdens of their communities.