the god complex

and resurrecting the wisdom of leadership - part one

One of the hallmarks of capitalism, especially in the more privileged white western world, is that we’re encouraged to ‘be who we want to be’ and to ‘follow our dreams’. While I very much agree with this in theory, when it comes to leadership in particular, there is a huge catch.

Trump himself once dreamed of becoming a leader. So did Netanyahu, Hitler, and various other men who have caused unimaginable harm to huge groups of people. There are others who have destroyed rainforests, livelihoods and ecosystems, just because they once fancied themselves as a leader. 

I often used to wonder about the people who auditioned for TV talent shows, full of conviction yet devoid of actual talent. And I wondered whether the kindest thing to do by those around them was to be honest about their abilities and to gently encourage them to pursue their actual strengths instead of face almost certain failure and public humiliation. 

Singing terribly in front of the nation is one thing. But leading a nation terribly is catastrophic. We already know why, because we’re all experiencing it to varying degrees, or we're reeling from, healing from and seeking restoration and justice from the after-effects of it, of which there are always many. 

In the UK, if you’re a privileged white man who has been educated in certain elite public schools, you get a fast-track entry into leadership, whether you’re capable of it or not. There is no wise council to consult about whether you have enough emotional intelligence, empathy or wisdom to lead a corporation, constituency, or even a nation. In the USA, even a convicted felon can successfully campaign his way to presidency, as long as he has enough audacity and has rallied enough support from the crowds using age-old tactics. 

Photo by Eric Ardito

When it comes to leadership, our sense of responsibility, wisdom, intuition and healthy discernment were some of the many qualities that were deliberately driven underground during colonization. It targeted our earth-honouring ways, our connection to our community, our more-than-human-kin and our many spiritualities, trying to replace them with the idea of a vengeful-turned-compassionate patriarchal god and his only son, who he sent to save the rest of us; sinners by birth. This helped create an imprint for the colonial leader archetype that would spread across most of the globe like wildfire, imposed through the fear of divine judgement, eternal damnation and in many cases, outright murder. 

Even though the original man was a brown-skinned Palestinian, Jesus morphed into a mythic white man with blue eyes, and by default, so did his aged holy father. And boom - the archetype of the superior god-like white man became embedded in our minds as the most moral amongst us, the most worthy amongst us. The one who should naturally be telling us what to do. 

I believe we've been beholden by this global hypnosis for at least the last 400 years, and we continue to be. Men like Trump, with inflamed god-complexes, quote biblical verses and create the illusion that there is a real moral underpinning behind his dubious behaviour; that he is simply doing god’s work. Across the globe, we see Netanyahu doing the same thing through Zionism. And even though he is a man from a colonized nation, we see Modi supposedly doing god's work by spreading far-right Hindu fascism in India, attacking and oppressing ethnic minorities under the name of spiritual truth and a ‘higher order’ of things. This is, essentially, the modern-day divine right of kings. To divide people by class, caste, ethnicity and religion to inflict harm based on a religiously man-made and unquestionable hierarchy of worth. 

This absurd hypocrisy is highlighted by Arundhati Roy in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.  

Nothing scared those murderers more than the prospect of bad luck. After all, it was to ward off bad luck that the fingers that gripped the slashing swords and flashing daggers were studded with lucky stones embedded with thick gold rings. It was to ward off bad luck that the wrists wielding iron rods that bludgeoned people to death were festooned with red puja threads lovingly tied by adoring mothers.

All of these men once dreamed of being where they are today. They pursued those dreams with vigour and manifested them into reality, with a huge dose of audacity, social privilege and entitlement. 

In many of these cases, the threat - and reality - of violence is used to enforce compliance to these leaders’ ideologies. This violence could be from ‘the enemy within’ our lands or from foreign concerns which should never have concerned us in the first place. 

Most often, the UK and US invest in foreign wars due to resource grabs cleverly disguised as protection for the people who just so happen to inhabit that resource-rich foreign land. The western hero comes and saves the poor people of the global majority - made poor by colonialism, mind - from the enemy who wants to destroy their peace, usually a small ‘terrorist’ group also being armed by said hero or another western power wanting to get a piece of the pie. In return, the people receive the absolute devastation of their land, theft of their lifegiving resources, poverty, civil unrest, infighting and genocide. But if they're really lucky, they might just be left with the Bible and the promise of an eternal heaven in the skies. The god complex strikes again. 

Photo by Elianna Gill

These leaders, who are very often war criminals, direct our taxpayer money and public funds into weapons manufacturing, foreign military invasions and ‘interventions’, turning it into blood money without our consent. Meanwhile, our social infrastructures continue to be depleted as crucial public funds are diverted to ‘national security’ in foreign lands. 

The energy that compels us to accept, and in many cases, actually support these leaders, hooks directly into our survival mechanisms, our very primal needs to be fed, housed and to be physically safe. Oftentimes, we're made deliberately confused about whether we need safety from the threat of the leader, or from the threat they're protecting us against. In any case, there has to be some sort of threat. 

Despite the promise of democracy, we often feel like we don’t have a choice in who gets to govern our lands, and it can make us feel powerless. 

But what about the smaller scale versions of leadership that we do have a choice to freely participate in? How can we be more discerning with who we give our time, money and power to, and how can we call our power back and start exercising more sovereignty in our day to day lives?

I’m a firm believer that if we’re not the conscious leaders of our own life, it’s being led by others.

In the world of social media, anyone with a large following or 3 day yoga teacher training certificate can run groups, call themselves a leader and attract the power given to them by others. There are so many spiritual influencers out there, it’s hard to keep count. Any white cis-het man with a microphone and enough conviction in his beliefs can attract a hefty following with hardly any regulation or regard. And even though they’re not leaders of groups in a traditional sense, they are leaders. Because there are droves of people hanging onto their every word, their every thought, and their every piece of advice. 

Photo by Jared Rice

Does it mean they should have pursued these roles, just because they could in this capitalist world? Where does the responsibility and power lie? Does it all lie with the person leading, or the people following? When harm is caused, is the leader culpable, just because the listener chose to follow their advice?

The answer is nuanced. It’s both. Leaders and influencers are responsible for what they put out into the world, particularly when they know that people respect their work and take notice of what they say. Leadership is a huge responsibility - this isn't a game or a way for someone to fuel their egoic needs or heal childhood wounding through contriving admiration or power. This is serious. An irresponsible and incompetent leader can cause a great deal of harm to other people. 

And on the flip side, it’s also down to every individual to discern whether to listen or not, whether to agree or not, and whether it is right for them or not. 

The key here, for both parties, is wisdom. 

It’s time to resurrect wisdom from the depths of our collective psyche, where it was relegated to the back seat, peering from behind the more patriarchal and scientific concepts of intellect, logic, reason and common sense. While these are necessary qualities, without the essence of wisdom behind their application, we find ourselves where we are today - with hugely advanced technologies developed from highly intelligent minds, employed solely to destroy human bodies. The genetic modification of seeds. Or certain AI creations which threaten to replace necessary human roles and connections. 

Wisdom is often the why behind what we create. And although it is more of an essence rather than a tangible quality, I will explore its energy and expression in greater depth in part two, including how we can cultivate more of it in our internal and external worlds, particularly as leaders. 

I hope you will join me there. Until then, take care. 

If you’re a leader who would like to dive further into this work with me on a 1:1 level, I offer consultancy sessions, so feel free to get in touch.