2680 Leader Of Mehn.

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It seems pretty rare for characters to actually express what it is about each other that gets them going. People can gather the vague things, like Thomas is funny, or Carol has big boobs, but there’s usually a lot of other unspoken stuff. Carol isn’t listing it off, but so far we’ve seen her express a love for his zealous moments, and his ability to take charge and command others. Qualities that aren’t as surface level as looks or the general idea of “personality”. Even though those are aspects of his. I try to slide it expressions of these smaller things with all the relationships, even the platonic ones. Carol appreciates Edward’s dependability, for example. Which is funny because she doesn’t value the same trait in Reggie as much since their relationship is strained.

Anyway I don’t really need to be spelling out these things. People will get it or not. Paste in whatever bits of their experiences that fills in the blanks for them until the narrative corrects them. I guess this is Friday’s page, so I’ll wish you a pleasant weekend and hope that you arrive safe, and alive, on Monday. Until then, sayonara.

28 Comments

It’s truly an irony that those most suited to leadership are also those who would rather drink a glass dust smoothie with bleach than actually be a leader.

And conversely, those who are least suited to power are the ones who’ll most actively pursue it

Clearly, the solution is to elect whoever hates the job the most.

I did read a book with that premise once, where the main character got elected because he was out of town at the time and couldn’t run an anti-election campaign to make himself look bad. Lost the title, though.

Was that a Terry Pratchett book? That sounds like something he’d do.

It’s a concept first (AFAICT) expounded on by Douglas Adams in his book “Restaurant at the End of the Universe”:

“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.

To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”

I beleive this was actually early on in the first volume, “The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy”, with the introduction of Zaphod Beeblebrox and the christening of the starship “heart of Gold” with the Infinite Improbability drive.

Damnit, you’re making me went to haul my omnibus volume down off the shelf and read it, again.

Closest I can remember to something like that in a Pratchett book is that canonically in XXXX when a politician is elected they are immediately thrown into prison, to be released at the end of their term. Because “all politicians are criminals”

You know, I’ve been wondering something. Where exactly is Dawn Holland/Constance Willowbrook lately? I have the image in my mind of her just showing up at Megatainment one day, and grilling Thomas about the Winthrop incident.

There’s no way she didn’t see the TV broadcast, and she could easily see future books possibly coming out of it. Her attaching herself to Jesse, and all her possible projects would be another possible angle.

Give the elastic in-universe timescale couldn’t it be that Dawn and Lewis are probably otherwise occupied at this point?

/comics1/1079-ja-matta-ne

There is that. But I can’t imagine her not showing at least some interest in the Winthrop and incident. She seems like the kind of person who, as a writer, would insist on getting some first-hand details of something like that.

I have always said the best person to be President would be someone who absolutely does not want the job.

I recall reading a sci-fi series where the leader of the planet was chosen based on their ability to do the job. The computer picked the best candidate, and then that person was literally *drafted* to be President.

The story I remember centered on someone who was chosen and was doing everything they could to stay ahead of the Recruitment posse.

Sounds like me at work. Just about everyone tells me I should be a manager, but my response will always be the same. “If they made me manager, I’d have to put in my two weeks, cause I could never work for a company that would have someone like me as a manager.”

I think the trope of the Reluctant Ruler can be found all the way back to Plato’s The Republic.

In a nutshell, (which the squirrelly amongst bus will appreciate) often, those best suited to leading, are often those that do so from behind the scenes, allowing those who want to be seen ad leaders to take both the accolades and the blame, while largely being anonymous to those being actually lead.
In short, yes, those who least want to lead are usually the best suited to do so, often having the chore thrust upon them, because, either no one else wants the job, or the one doing the job sucks at it. In which case they are often “advisors” to those “in charge”, doing the job in all but name.
And yes, I speak from experience, having both been forced to be a leader, and act as an advisor on WAY too many occasions.
It.sometime sucks being tje.resident JOAT… (If you know, you know…)

John was right. Carol is never afraid to call Thomas out. You need that in a romantic partner.

Going back and looking at that story, Carol reacts to Thomas’s orders with wide eyes and a “Yes sir”, and this makes that so much better. :)

I said it below, but yeah, it certainly clarifies panel four of this comic a bit:

/comics1/2119-gone-in-60-seconds

The best leaders are those who don’t want to be leaders; the humility runs contrary to the rest of the skillset.

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