Devil’s Advocate

They say be a leader, not a follower, but followers are the ones that get everything done. I know that goes against everything that most of us have been taught but think about it. For one, most leaders get assassinated, and while I'm all for dying to prove a point, that may hurt and I don't like pain. Also, you have to know what to say. Look at these morons running the country. As soon as COVID became trending on Twitter, they ran out there with their comb-overs and fresh-pressed tuxedos and proclaimed that everything was under control and everything was okay. How is it okay when it just got posted 7 seconds ago?

Granted, I'm not a BLIND follower, and I never will be. It perplexes me how someone can put a cloth over their eyes and just follow some of these people we've given a platform and that we expect to "lead" us. I mean, politics are one thing, a large thing actually that I'm tired of focusing on, but celebrities are a better representation. We follow people just because they're famous. It boggles me. I'm not saying I don't follow people just because they're rich or because they're the leader of a platform I've been told I fit in, but I can admit that and recognize who they are and what they did. Plus, all of those arbitrary people that I follow still have personalities, unlike some of the people I hear are famous nowadays.

For example, I don't know how you get famous from TikTok. It's just a video of you being weird. Why are we praising this? Granted, I'm lowkey jealous that I'm not famous (for monetary reasons mainly), but seriously, how does that make you famous? I know the two sisters on TikTok (their names escape me right now) have come under fire for being "ungrateful" for their platform, but they also woke up famous. How can you be grateful for something that fell in your lap? That's like finding out you won the lottery that your third cousin on your mom's side entered you in. It's nice and it helps you out in various ways, but you don't get the joy of working for it. You just got it on your first try and now everyone's looking at you.

I think that can be seen with some bigger celebrities like the Kardashians and Beyonce. There have been like eight seasons of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, but apparently, Kim Kardashian (the most famous) is like a Barbie doll that can talk sometimes that is married to the most annoying Ken doll ever. When people try to play her in Snatch Game, they always fall flat because there's not much she does. Same with Beyonce. Aside from her memorable Destiny's Child interview in the Netherlands(?) when she was high, the most humanity I've seen from Beyonce is when she's zoned out at a basketball game imagining that she's somewhere else. I'm not doubting her singing ability (though I am doubting her acting ability because she was overshadowed in every movie she was in) but she seems like she's just one note as a person.

That's why I don't want to be a leader. I like being in the background. I enjoy helping make shit happen from behind the curtain. The leader can't have a good performance if there's no one there to turn on the lights, set up the stage, and call people to show up. Looking back at Beyonce and the Kardashians, their parents were amazing managers. Beyonce's father is the sole reason we know who she is. Not only did he start Destiny's Child and manage it, but he did all the shady behind-the-scenes work that made sure that when that girl group inevitably became the Hunger Games, his daughter would be Katniss. Similarly, Kris Jenner apparently decided that her daughter releasing a sex tape would further their careers, not crumble them. After one sex tape, all of the kids got famous, started businesses, launched fashion lines, showed their asses on several E! and Bravo shows, and have become synonymous with elegance and beauty.

While my goal is not to become a shady person, I admire them. In fact, they taught me more than a leader ever could. Leaders are made by followers. If there's no one to follow, you can't lead. We see it all the time in those group challenge cooking shows where everyone wants to decide the menu, and they get caught up arguing and there's no one left to cook until one person rises above the others and becomes the leader. But, if there are no followers, the leader isn't a leader. They're just someone with the charisma of a leader and a plan of some sort trying to convince people to follow them. I'm not into wasting my talent and time trying to find an audience when I have the tools to be a follower. All that means is I know I can be useful to someone, and I know I want stuff to change. Having a hand in that change is creating change, especially since one person can't make a change. Find deposed/lone leader and see how that's working out for them.

The thing is, you can't be a dumb follower. I don't want to be a dumb follower. The way I see it, herd animals are different just like followers are different. Most people are sheep. Sheep are rather defenseless, need someone to help them, and travel in very large groups. I want to be an alpaca. Alpacas get stressed in large groups, but they still are herd animals. Their herds are just small. They take care of themselves, are quite intelligent, and can beat the fuck out of many canids just because they naturally don't like them. I want to be an alpaca because I don't have to stand on my own to have those qualities. Around the right group, my qualities would be used to create change, and I wouldn't have to worry about someone getting caught up in my looks.

All that to say, I wanted to challenge myself to see why people would choose to be a follower. It's strange to choose that path though since most people just unhappily settle into it, but it shouldn't be a bad thing. I think actively trying to do something, even if it is just helping someone else, shouldn't be bad. Even if you aren't the one on the podium, you being a part of that platform can help move it forward. I just wish that definition of a "follower" wasn't lumped in with the type of following where if a leader jumps off a cliff, everyone else does too. That sort of following should stop.