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“Meet the new boss,
same as the old boss!”
sang the Who.
Why do we obediently follow leaders
whose words, behaviors, and policies
are clearly lacking in empathy and wisdom?
Over the millennia
mammalian children have evolved
to act with devotion toward their parents
that they may be protected and well fed.
However during the travails of puberty,
when children endure metamorphosis into adulthood,
their feelings towards their parents
also shift from devotion to love.
Gone is blind obedience;
only to be replaced with independence.
But, subject an adult
to a sufficient degree of stress
(ironically caused by predatory and shortsighted politicians)
and they will earnestly search about
to find a political parental figure
to whom they will gladly surrender their moral agency;
like the multitudes trusting
in Supreme Leader Snoke and his First Order
after the fall of the first galactic empire.
Sadly this stress can also chase us
out of our empathetic mammalian brain
and into our reptilian one:
competitive, and ruthless, and blind.
Let us conclude
with a simple
call to action
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