The difference defines more than mere leadership style – it defines your soul and how you’re letting it engage with the world.
The Opposite of Tyranny
It’s easy to categorise the presence of tyrants and tyranny, but harder to conceptualise its opposite; hence starting here.
I realised: It’s definitely not “freedom” – whatever that actually means – and it’s certainly not anarchic or hedonistic freedom.
It must be play.
Now, when you’re a kid – play is the foundation of micro-communities. All mammals play, and all young mammals experience play in that same way – the creation of micro-communities.
As humans, play is interesting both psychologically and psycho-biologically because play is something that must be entered into voluntary. The only technicality that differentiates play between humans and other mammals here is we assume it’s an instinctive – not a voluntarily conscious – decision.
But by definition, it cannot be forced. Mark my words: there’s nothing playful about forced play.
With it being a state of voluntary co-regulated vulnerability, play becomes fascinatingly fragile. Thanks to the mammalian neural circuitry that runs the show – and at least the play part of it – it can be disrupted by any other motivational or emotional chemical circuitry.
For arguments sake, if we take myself: someone who can only operate and drive forwards from a mission-first inside-out life-force possession, if I am ready to drive one particular thing in my life forwards, but then have my neural-circuits and what’s naturally flowing through them hijacked by a different motivational and/or emotional circuit like frustration/fight – the show’s fucked.
So, the circumstances have to be set up properly – which is the idea of the Walled Garden – where play can eternally take place.
And, because it has to be undertaken voluntarily, it’s the opposite of tyranny.
Therefore, there isn’t a better attitude than the attitude of play: to approach everything playfully; like one big Abrahamic adventure.
When Jesus said “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 18:3) he was simply highlighting the fact that you must not stay like children, but rediscover and re-integrate it.
Arguably also then, the main causes of pathological and tyrannical (as they’re closely related) degeneration are linked to the inability or refusal to align to the rhythms of natural (childlike) possession and play.
Where (and How) Psychopathy Involves Itself
Mammals, particularly us humans, are not just biological and psychological but heavily sociological.
Which is, in no uncertain terms, a reputation game.
Neurochemically, as reputation rises, so do serotonin levels.
As serotonin levels increase, you become less sensitive to negative emotion and more sensitive to positive emotion: a pretty good deal; hence the desire for reputation amongst mammals as there’s a genuine psychological benefit.
The converse is true – there’s a real cost to reputational decrease, explaining why people don’t like to feel as if they’re losing out or fight against the idea of “losing face”, as their emotions, by definition, dysregulate when their reputation decreases.
Now, if reputation is a game, it should unequivocally be played through establishing a genuine reputation and, to call-back again to Abraham, the best way to do that is to embark on your unique Dharmic quest because, when a quest is undertaken properly, the consequence is long-term scalable reputational enhancement. Likely because you’re clearly not focused on reputation but your quest.
But at what point does psychopathy involve itself?
“The Shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and it therefore, as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psychotherapeutic measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending over a long period of time.” — C.G. Jung
Psychopathy will involve itself, knowingly or unknowingly to the conscious-ego of an individual, whenever – and wherever, if unchecked – one’s shadow realises that reputation can be gamed.
As is thoroughly and exhaustively laid out within the current literature on non-criminal psychopathy: people that cannot or will not embark on their own quest – or those with psychopathy, pathologically corrupt psyches and/or unchecked shadows – will inevitably default to power games, in their nervous system’s malfunctioning attempts to enhance their own inner or outer stature or reputation when met with the mirror that is someone else doing so voluntarily in their unique and genuine way.
The Normality of Non-Criminal Psychopathy
How do you spot this said normality? Rather easily…
Use of False Weapons
Pathologically corrupt (so, unconscious) people inevitably – again, out of their own ineptitude – proclaim moral virtue over a situation, invade an idea space that was available to invade and occupy despite it being pre-occupied, and then use those now co-opted ideas as false weapons to enhance their (at that point, beyond) narcissistic advantage.
Unrelenting Desire for Unearned Reputation
The narcissistic types – and, again, other pathologically corrupt people – are always on the hunt for unearned reputation. While using speech to manipulate (Machiavellian) and acting parasitically or predatorially (psychopathic).
Co-Regulation and Self-Soothing in Shared Pain
The nomenclature on non-criminal psychopathy had to be expanded after a while because it was found that there was a presence of sadism. Implying that, if you consistently engaged with the world in Machiavellian, narcissistic and/or psychopathic ways, you would develop a sufficiently bad (and self-perpetuating) view of your fellow men that their undeserved sources of pain become a source of, at worse pleasure to you and at best co-regulation to your unconscious nervous system.
The Rule of Thumb
Those who are clearly playing power games for their own gain will therefore always spin up narratives in their own way and ride them to their own benefit.
Leadership Binary: The Tyrannical vs The Invitational
If Abraham is the archetypal Father, Moses is the archetypal leader; and what can we learn from that?
Let me take you to the point in Moses’ arc where he’d done everything that was asked of him: freed himself and the Israelites from the grasp of the Pharaoh (tyrant), led them through the desert (chaos of the internal lack of leadership at the individual level), and got them to the gates of the promised land.
Now, there was one final thing God asked of him – use invitation.
In the context it was in, it was to go to a rock and ask God to release water from it, for the Israelites.
When Moses got himself to the rock, he uses force instead – hitting the rock not once but twice with his staff.
Because of this one act, God tells him he cannot enter the promised land and after sorting a successor to do so instead – he dies.
Leaders vs Fear
Leaders say: “Here’s an offer, I’m inviting you to take it on your own free-will and I’ll assist in your sovereignty if accepted.”
Tyrants say: “The apocalypse is coming, and we should do everything – including control you and everything that you do – because of that.”
Tyrants use fear and force, leaders use invitations.
But, the end of the world is indeed always on its way. So it’s always possible and even arguably rational for you to look to the future and conjure up a likely apocalyptic scenario.
And, even if that in itself is not a sin – but if “sin” etymologically means to “miss the mark” then it indeed is – using fear and compulsion as governance, let alone a method of communication, certainly is.
And doing so does, by definition, makes you a tyrant – regardless of your reasons for doing so; it must be invitational, or else the technical diagnosis remains.
Acting in any way but invitationally does nothing but rescind the ability for those you lead or commune with to have any form of sovereignty – unless they’re capable of overriding the sovereignty which you attempt to rescind.
Sovereignty: the authority to self-govern.
Which, you could argue is our one job as humans within micro (friends, family, work) and macro (local, national, species) communities – to empower individual, thus leading to collective, sovereignty.
As, it’s only from that point that authenticity and autonomy – which are possibly mutually exclusive – can spring forth.
Now, ask yourself and interrogate honestly: what beliefs, movements or sciences do you willingly slave (the opposite of sovereignty) yourself to that are driven by fear and compulsion?
Face your life with eyes wide open and never fail to see.