Thoughts of a 'Philospher-King'

Let's set a mood for this one, aight? If you've got ya Outkast Aquemini's, let us all turn to track 15, the piece entitled Liberation. Arright?

Arright then.

Lemme start by saying: the world needs leaders. But let me follow up by saying: if every man is a leader, then who does he lead? It's a dilemma I keep having to choke down as I progress in my ventures. It's crazy because, when you're considered an intellectual, and you kick it with other intellectuals, you find that you're in a room full of leaders.

But the trip is, it doesn't start out that way. It never starts out that way...

It starts out with a bunch of people in a room, throwing ideas just because they can, never intending to do anything productive with them; just in love with the fact that they know a little somethin' that somebody else might not, feel me? I never liked that; when Karl Marx wrote his 11th point in his thesis on Feuerbach, I musta been a preincarnate baby spirit somewhere in Heaven amening my heart out.

And just so I don't come off as an intellectual throwing ideas for the hell of it myself, lemme post Marx's words up for your viewing pleasure:

"Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it."
-Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach

Now, suck on that for a minute. I'm gonna put what I said earlier in different words now. It starts off with "philosophers" in a room, interpreting the world to each other for no reason and with no purpose. I never liked that.

So, as I sit in this room, methinks that something is wrong with this picture. All the talking doesn't amount to anything; you die a talker, and nobody will remember anything you said. The "point" is "change", as my favorite conflict theorist said.

Fine. Then let's get on with the change. And while I'm having this epiphany, I'm looking around the room at all these great minds, and it seems like it's perfect: surely, with all these great minds in a room together, we can get something accomplished!

So I'm drawing up plans, strategizing, exacting, pinpointing, dissecting, experimenting, testing, pondering, meditating, evaluating. They're still chit-chatting...

BAM, I'm ready. Let's do this thing.

So, I holla at the geniuses. "I've got a plan. This can work. 'We can rebuild him; we have the technology.' It's on US." And I get bunch of nods. Glorious! Change is a-comin'!

But then... it happens. And it blows my friggin mind every. Single. Time. All of a sudden, the philosophers-without-a-cause decide they want to become leaders-without-direction! AWWWW SON! WHAT IN THE WIDE WORLD OF SPONTANEOUS! AWWWWW SON!!

So, even though I've spent days upon days upon nights upon weeks contemplating and planning and plotting and... you get the idea. Even though I've got this thang laid out to the end of the world, somehow that's not good enough. And all of a sudden people, who in the beginning had no destination, come up with their own agendas and try to tack them on to what I've started! AWWWWW SON!!!

It's like you went out and bought apples to keep the doctor away, and after you bring them home somebody goes and makes apple pie out of the whole batch. SWEET GESTURE!... Instead keeping the doctor away, run my sugar and my cholesterol up, why don't ya, ya a$$?! Or like, when you get your license, but you find yourself running errands for other people... when YOU paid the gas money?! Or when you throw up a Hail Mary and it gets intercepted... by somebody on your own team... who is cross-eyed and running in the wrong direction... and they got the nerve to get offended when you tell them, "TURN AROUND FOOL!! U GOIN THE WRONG WAY!!!"

Which leads me to my next point. And I think this is the worst part of all of it. Okay, so the operation is getting botched by a lack of cooperation and coordination and a surplus of headstrong individuals... I might could live with that. But this is the clencher: the "my way or the highway" mentality of these cats!!! Five seconds ago, I presented you with a plan that you said was as dope as the billion-dollar US drug trade. Three seconds ago, you took what I meticulously created and tried to customize it to suit your own purposes. Now, at the last second, you act like you don't want to be involved at ALL?! Just because you can't have your way?!! AWWWW SON!!!

So, that sends me back to the drawing board... with no philosophers this time, because they don't want to be involved if they can't run the sh!t their way. I'm not gonna go through history and talk about how many great ideas fell apart by this same process; it's just too depressing. And it all comes down to the same simple concept: pride. You would think history wouldn't repeat itself so much, but people really are sheep, just like God calls us; we go through life with our heads down, going in the same direction as those who came before us. Wherever the grass grows, we eat ourselves right off a cliff, and if it wasn't for the Shepherd reaching out every now and then with his rod and staff, we'd just be some dead-a$$ sheep.

And this is the heartbreaker: with the philosophers gone, I'm left with the people who don't really understand what's going on; the good-willed, able-bodied, and available. I got people that know me that are down for WHATEVER... even if they don't understand the situation I'm getting into. And I hate that; I don't want anybody to go into anything unawares with me just because they trust me. I'm not going to exploit anybody, feel me?

Still, there's something to be said for the follower. A leader is nothing without followers. By the same token, a leader is nothing with other leaders. And I don't know what it is with philosophers, but somehow their entire existence lies in their ability to point out directions. You might say the same of me except for one thing: whatever I say, I will physically go out and back up with my own muscle, and by myself if necessary. I am both leader and follower; I think, therefore I do. Because the "point" is "change", not interpretation.

SO, you've got the elitist philosophers who must lead; you've got the uninformed masses who must follow. But somewhere in-between, there's got to be the elevated follower, who follows of his own volition due to his understanding of the situation. But, until I can assemble more of the latter, you've got the elevated leader, "philosopher king", who organizes his own plans and ideas and follows them through on the strength of the God he serves with his own hands.





(*Sidenote: This is what I really wanted to express in the Leave Me Alone entry a few days ago. It just wouldn't come out right. Now, perhaps, there's a little more clarity...)

How many heads does it take to screw in a light bulb. Think reeeeal hard... B-J