There is a phenomenon that we see around some corporate leaders and others in high social leadership positions in our time. An ego driven personality can weave a web of promises and appeal to the real values of good people in a way that's wholly deceptive and ultimately self defeating. His or her rhetoric and promises create a loyalty in others who then seek, in the classic mode of confirmation bias, to retain their belief and hope in the face of ongoing and disconfirming evidence, but can manage it only for a time. Then the truth prevails.
In about 2015, the Muse gave me a part of my epic novel series that will be published in October. In the forthcoming book, The Magic Ring, there is an immensely greedy and power hungry man named Santiago who has inspired his followers with his lofty claims about greatness. On page 396 we begin to see misgivings form in the mind of one of his top followers, a Miguel Abad, as he begins to ride into Cairo, Egypt on a hot day in 1935, with a few others on camel. He is thinking about his leader and teacher.
<<Miguel had been attracted at first to the man’s brashness and lofty rhetoric about what the world needs. And then he had been sufficiently enticed and lulled into acquiescence by promises of greatness that he had long ignored the small warning signs and feelings of ambivalence that continued to crop up in his heart. Like all men, he was a master of self-deception and rationalization, and had long deceived himself, as Santiago had sought to deceive him. In fact, he had been living proof for years that no one else can fool us unless we are willing first to fool ourselves. And that’s how we become fools, indeed.
Deep down, Miguel knew that there was instability in his teacher, and basic untrustworthiness, but he had long masked this knowledge from himself, pretending that everything was fine and that the glories of their collaborative triumph in the future would make all things right. But the thefts of the animals had deeply bothered him. And now, many things cumulatively had been troubling him about the current mission of revenge they seemed to be pursuing. Where was this taking them? What was the outcome to be? How would any of this benefit the followers who had entrusted their lives to this man who now ultimately seemed to care about no life other than his own?
Miguel was still going along, and to all outward appearances seemed loyal. But inwardly, he was experiencing a combination of doubt, anger, and a growing sense of rebellion against what he had been caught up in.>>
For the books in the series leading up to this one, with an extended adventure about leadership, go to www.TheOasisWithin.com
