What is a leader? And how do they emerge?
A leader is the plant that grows from the soil of the people. As the composition and condition of the soil determines the nature and quality of the plant, so does the condition of a people determine the quality of the leader that emerges from them. It is a basic principle that, before there is any planting and growth, there must first be tilling of the soil. Consequently, before genuine leadership can emerge, the conditions must first be prepared among the people.
“A leader is the plant that grows from the soil of the people.”
As plants are first within the soil as seeds before they emerge above ground, so are individuals first within the people before they emerge as leaders. And just as the seed extracts nutrients from the ground it uses to grow into a plant, so does a person extract nutrients from the soil of the people that he uses in leadership. Before leaders emerge, they exist within concentric circles of influences within the broader circle of a country. The innermost circle is the nuclear family; the second circle is the community; the third circle is the township within a state; and the outermost circle is the state within a county. The circles are even colored according to the nature of the cultures in question, which express unique concepts and tendencies. These are all layers of influences and characteristics that creates a collective DNA into which a person is deeply embedded, like the soil composition.
However, we must bear in mind the differences in the use of the free will that enables man to overcome any influences, and thus never makes him a victim of circumstances owing to his ability to guide his actions according to his intuitive sensing…if he so desires. Nevertheless, it is the characteristics of this collective DNA to which a person is inwardly connected (and also his free will) that contributes to influence how they grow, and what they eventually express as leaders. Through the leader, the people receive the ripened fruits of their own collective nature. And that is why it holds: a people can only elect their own consciousness. The people fashion the environment that determines the type of leadership they experience, so the leader is a singular reflection of the collective. Thus, if leadership is blamed for all the ills of society without also addressing the heart of the people, you would have more success growing a different species of plant by only cutting the stem, while leaving the root untouched!
Every seasoned teacher has personally experienced how the nature of each class is different, and that the individual qualities of the specific group of students is what mainly determines the collective nature. With a different group of students, the nature of the class also changes! The “nature” of the class, i.e., the group of individuals, creates an “energy-field” the outsider calls “culture” or “class personality”. The culture, being an energy-field of a collective characteristic, fashions an environment in which certain qualities predominate and are reinforced in their expression. The culture here is analogous to the environment the inner qualities of the people creates which enables certain type of leaders and institutions to emerge. Another example is to think of a group of people gathered in a restaurant who have a marked superficiality. Should an earnest person join their discussion, the trivial nature of the group will make the presence of the earnest one an irritation or a “bore”, because their energies do not match. The collective nature of the group is the culture their inner qualities create which reinforce and admit others of a similar disposition, but which repels other earnest qualities. The group, now composed of mismatched energies and is no longer “relaxed”, will disband in either two ways: the earnest one leaving, or the others cooling off and finding a reason to depart early. This simple illustration answers the question why certain leaders cannot easily emerge among certain groups of people.
The leader is the crowning reflection of the predominant tendencies within a people; the leader is a mirror into their own collective nature. Even the institutions that come to govern a people through leadership is a physical build-out of their own inner qualities. In Nature, mushrooms are decomposers of the ecosystem that, during spring, sometimes sprout overnight from the ground. So whenever there is decomposing matter in the soil, mushrooms will sprout in that area as a physical reflection of this process. Similarly, the leadership and institutions that “spring up” around a people directly reflect their inner contents, i.e., the qualities in the soil of their souls.
Thus, the leader mirrors the collective qualities of a people, and the people can only elect and be governed by their own consciousness.
As the leader is only a reflection of the collective consciousness, to truly change the trajectory of a country, you must address not just the type of leader but especially the qualities of the people. The root has to be changed that fashions the environment within which the leader germinates as a plant. Each person must look within and start making serious changes there. It is easy to blame one person for all the ills of a society, but this is the convenient action that avoids the personal responsibility of true self-assessment and change. If we look close enough, we will always discover how our collective qualities creates an environment that allows only certain “species” of plants (leaders) to flourish. Seek and ye shall find. Thus, if we seek inwardly enough, we will always find the relationship and see the connections.
Only when individuals become strong enough in their commitment to furthering values will they collectively become a fertilizing agent in their environment. The composition of the soil, thus transformed, will prepare the environment for a new seed to germinate, i.e., for a strong and noble leader to emerge who, as a nourishing plant with rich qualities, will bear fruit and spread blessing among the people. And in the process, the institutions that govern them will also slowly be transformed. Thus, by the people raising the plant of a noble leader on the soil of their own ennobled qualities, the Divine Law is fulfilled: “you reap what you sow”.
The leader is a mirror of the collective qualities of the people.
In the operation of this universal law lies both judgment and fulfillment!
~Dr. Ikenna Q. Ezealah
Foundation for Ascent 