Leaderless change.
Why do I find it so alluring? What’s so fascinating about it? What bugs me about authority and leadership in the first place?
You don’t have to go far – well, merely to the very front page of my website – to see that I’m obsessed with individuality and people doing their own thing. The hashtag #itsourturn I decorate my website with boasts this very idea of people finally assuming control over their fate. There’s no bigwig giving back power to the people, no politician or a tech nerd with a misleading message about their unique political party or futuristic technology, it’s just us, the people, realizing that finally it’s our turn to take a leap and begin the pursuit of our own dreams.
And then, there’s the whole Dragon’s Alliance journey, or the journey that is not yet happening. Yes, I’m editor in chief, and yet I’m not setting the pace, not paving the way. If we go like this, the dream of the Alliance, the community of the Cithadel, and all the amazing potential projects and collabs on top of that might never take place because there’s no one to organize the journey.
So, we are back to the concept of leaderless change, something I have been hinting at from the very beginning. If you didn’t notice, the critical view formulated on my website’s home page, the statement that people always turn to an “unbroken succession of leadership” instead of doing their own thing revolves around this idea of problematic hierarchy and a few commanding the many.
Creating change on the surface is easy. The wind blows and the desert is a calmly waving sea of moving sand hills. But no matter how far the wind takes those rootless sand pieces, the desert in the end of the day is always the same, withstanding the forces of centuries.
The way we coexist as members of society is not far from the everlasting nature of deserts and mountains. Yes, the technology we use changes, and so does the lifestyle that characterizes our everydays. Kingdoms fell, slaves rose, and today, we enjoy free elections and representative democracy. Castles in the past brought safety or exhibited the wealth and power of feudalist little princes. Today, it’s either terrorists bombing them as heathen relics or kids running around in them watching customed knights hit each other with wooden sticks.
However, it doesn’t matter much whether we are obsessing over the idealistic promise of blockchain and cryptocurrencies or are delving into the alarming implications of rising populism and the societal crevices it creates. We could even throw the growing popularity of Effective Altruism, or the hurdles faced by gender issues into the pot, and we would keep circling around the very same issue. Changes come and go, societies alternate between bloody revolutions and peaceful transitions, and in the end, we always end up right where we started from – human relationships themselves and the hierarchies they create are the ones behind our tribulations, that’s the one riddle we just can’t seem to solve.
We always fail as we move forward because while different ideas might be driving our actions, spearheaded by different champions, the way we build up the new revolution is always according to the same good old tradition. Leaders rise and the people follow.
I didn’t come up with the Dragon’s Alliance to step in the shoes of these past visions. When I talk of change, I dream about something that overstays its invitation. A new trend that lasts beyond tomorrow instead of merely becoming another blip that fades away the moment people realize that it was just another illusion.
The change I have envisioned is this evolving community of proactive people where literally everything is viewed as possible. If my hypothesis is true, this builds that world where all of us are in control, and which as a result better resembles whatever we can all truly enjoy. And why does this world need a leaderless revolution instead of one person or an organization charging ahead and showing us the right direction?
Because the very essence of the world the Dragon’s Alliance strives for is this new-found confidence people have that pushes them to follow their own voice instead of falling in line with ‘how the world is sold’. This simply doesn’t fair well with a leader telling us where to go. Besides, in this vision, there isn’t even a final destination where we are heading towards, a specific place which we would need someone to pave the road to. To the contrary, the very idea is that finally we realize that we must build our own roads because only we know where they should lead to.
Such a strong focus on pursuing our genuinely own goals is prohibitively essential because without us taking the initiative to shape the world of tomorrow it will fall on someone else to decide how things are & how they function, and that hardly ever matches what we personally are looking for.
However, if everything is always set in stone, if there are routines which are viewed as the only way to go, then that cripples the freedom we need to go wild with our imagination. It is for this reason that we need that different world that is understanding and flexible, and where leaders are willing to withdraw. Because for this self-obsessed journey to become possible, we don’t just need to change as initiators of actions, finally overcoming inhibition and our intrinsic disposition to follow and adore but should as well reboot as recipients of those actions, cutting people some slack as they explore the world under their own terms and conditions.
None of these so-called tenets are pointing at one specific final destination. Neither one person nor an organization can even begin to envision what society itself with just under 8 billion individual souls should aspire to. Each time a vision is nevertheless sold, be that the supposedly sustainable city of Neom or the French Revolution, it’s only a small group of people who are actually getting what they are signing up for. There might be a shift in who is in charge, after all, the fact that royal heads fell is undeniable. So, organized leadership can indeed produce results, however, the fruit of hard, organized work is never a true revolution but a mere coverup for a new gang of crafty people ascending to power.
Another telling example is the captivating promise of the blockchain & Web3 revolution which prophesied the dawn of a new democratic digital tomorrow where individuals could come together without the interference of central institutions. All that led to ballooning VC investment portfolios and angry people in the wake of the FTX fall which had managed to become the centerpiece of an allegedly decentralized phenomenon.
Web3 followed in the footsteps of past revolutions as it did have a detailed image of what it was trying to achieve. The final goal was clear, but it required no change in the hearts and souls of people. Instead, it assigned that role to technological innovation and early adoption, as if those would transform the basic characteristics of our interactions. From a movement point-of-view, Web3 definitely had its moments to glow, after all, for a while it did dominate the discourse and the facades of stadiums. But did it bring us closer to a world where we would truly be in control? A world where we have successfully stifled inhibition and our obsession to follow? Or was it just another chapter in the history of the prominent few leading the rest on?
Leadership undeniably projects strong credentials. Without a visionary pivoting towards something new, and an organization arising to pull the venture off, our human community might still count less than a million souls and our little tribe would still be painting hunting stories on damp cave walls.
However, it is because of this same organization and our longing for a few inspiring champions that the world’s structural flaws manage to linger on for so long. Because the essence of structures is that they are lasting institutions providing us with the comfort of prediction instead of encouraging us to think outside of the box. As a result, even when the world leaves much to be desired, we convince ourselves that the show must go on because without a continuous flow of traditions and societal norms the fear is there that society might descend into chaos, or even worst, would just stop moving forward.
Obviously, even amidst the comfort of traditions, the world already breeds those whose very mission is to upend the ordinary and innovate a little bit. These revolutionary spirits are responsible for all the paradigm shifts that we call history. And the books are long and exhausting, and we are out of the caves, so structure can’t be said to choke everything. But there is a difference between going from A to B to Z and finding that one place where we can all be happy.
Maybe, it’s not even about a place, about a ‘territorial discovery’, but the action itself of pursuing something. Not talking about a journey here because that’s something leaders already provide us with. After all, leaders lead, so with them we never stay at one place anyway. That’s why, I’m not here to repeat the cliché that it’s not about where we are going but how we get there. Because that’s jut not it. It’s not the journey.
Instead, it’s all about who initiates. That’s what the trick is, and that’s the secret ingredient that is always missing. Leaders might get us excited, and they might even go as far as to bring us along on their own captivating journey. They might give us roles and responsibilities, they might tease with the idea of ownership, but in the end of the day, no matter how magical the adventure has been, we will always be left with the bugging feeling that this just wasn’t it because it was indeed not our own journey. It was not ours because we did not initiate.
Moving from merely acting to initiating is the change we need to accomplish, the one big revolution that can only be achieved without leadership because the moment someone takes charge over this, the moment one champion breaks away from the pack to show us the way, we have already failed because once again, it was not us doing our own thing. Therefore, for this transformation to succeed, instead of being all organized and pushy, we need to get rid of the driver’s seat and just give people the time and space they need.
There can be advocates with voices. There can be people who are reflecting and planning. We can talk about this. The whole purpose of the Dragon’s Alliance is doing exactly this. Putting ideas out there without pushing anything, without going beyond ideating, just hoping that the day comes when something sticks, and some dreamers emerge to join the brainstorming.
‘Leading’ as far as this goes is obviously a necessity because at least the foundation of the vision needs to be formulated. Without that, we would just end up sticking with what has repeatedly become so disillusioning: Promising revolutions, beheadings, rights granted, defensive victories, and an enduring underlying structure where the rich are still bullies while the irrelevant are passively watching.
Therefore, some sort of a goal needs to be in place so that we don’t end up going in circles endlessly. But this goal is not a specific place, a destination with a road to be paved to be reached. This goal is a feeling, a proactive attitude we embrace, and then the place in the end where all our efforts culminate? I have no clue, because it all depends on what all of our individual dreams entail, something yet to be seen.
I’m personally super excited to see this future unfold, and the truth is, it’s hard to wait. Nonetheless, I can only talk and ideate, but I can’t lead and organize how this change towards proactivity takes place. As mentioned earlier, in this car there’s no driver’s seat. We are not waiting for one person to hit the gas and speed. We are waiting for you guys to make your moves in this game. Yes, I can try nudging, and the overall idea of leaderless change does need someone to elaborate on and explain, however, that’s pretty much it.
In light of all of this, it’s an absolute necessity that I’m obsessed with leaderless change, lucky for me that even without the need I find the idea fascinating. It’s not that I hate leadership because certain projects do require it. But the essence of the change I seek here is that we plant the seed instead of someone inviting us only to water it. As a result, there might be no flying start to the Dragon’s Alliance’s journey, but when it does kick off, then it will be through the right way, through the active presence of everybody instead of one person to dictate.
And that dream is worth everything, including all the wait and the stifled desire to lead.
