Survival of the Fittest - Choosing Good Leadership

 Today in English we were asked to discuss and think about what would happen or what we would do if we were thrown on a deserted island with no adults. One of the prompts in particular that stuck out to me was, “What qualities would you want in a leader?” Obviously, we answered with the basic stuff, we’d want someone that has “integrity”, someone that’s “assertive”, and someone that is “intelligent.” But really if you look at that a bit closer that’s really not something that I would want.

In a society where there is no obvious authority, having a leader is essential to societal function, as there is no true way everyone could be held “equally”, because of the inherent prejudices and biases we hold toward certain tasks, and a lack of general efficiency through relentless discussion. Here, this creates a point of conflict, as we would need to decide between two general directions. Either something closer to a dictatorship or something closer to a democratic republic, like what the United States has now. Most people in their right minds would prefer the latter, however, with the lack of governance on an isolated island, this requires rethinking.

Spending extended periods of time with other people familiarizes groups of people, but also exposes them to the worst sides of them you usually would not see. When people are irrationally angry, speaking from my personal point of view, they are often very hard to control, as we can see in cases of road rage and 2nd degree murder. In cases like these, the leader would have to be able to truly enforce his/her order through intimidation and threatening, similar to the control mechanisms our parents employ and the existence of law enforcement in society.

The only clear way to do this is if the leader has a special skill, such as being able to hunt, that others could not survive without, because then the leader would be protected and able to effectively govern their people through threats of withholding such gift. But, in having such an ability, the power is congregated in one person, and no longer spread  throughout society. With lack of virtue or integrity, this new dictator could easily change this island into a barbaric assembly. So, in cases like this, the lines of morality and right/wrong are blurred and making the “right” decision is hard. It’s something to think about, in a society without this external threat (in this case the dictator) or pressure, would we really be better off? What qualities would you want in a leader?