Think of this post as a lesson. A history lesson. It has nothing whatsoever to do with politics in the present. It’s only about politics past.
Have I made myself clear? This post is only about politics in the past. This means that any parallels to the present are purely, entirely, totally and wholly and completely coincidental.
In my most recent book, Leadership from Bad to Worse: What Happens When Bad Festers, I make two primary points. As the book’s title suggests, first, I write based on overwhelming evidence that if bad leadership is not stopped or at least slowed, it gets worse just as sure as night follows day.
Second, I write based on overwhelming evidence that bad leadership goes from bad to worse over time, in predictable phases. Over and over again, in every case of leadership that goes from bad to worse, the progression is the same. It is in four phases that unfold like clockwork, from one case of bad leadership in one time and place to another case of bad leadership in another time and place.
In Chapter 4 of the book, “The Phases of Development,” I introduce the four phases by drawing on a single example: Adolf Hitler. The book is not about Hitler. I simply use him and his assertion of power, and then more power, as an introductory case in point.
In Phase I, Onward and Upward, Hitler did what bad leaders initially do: they promise the moon and the stars. Of course, all leaders try to persuade their followers that under them the future will be better than the past. But leaders like Hitler take this to the extreme. Hitler promised his people that under him Germany would rise from the ashes, become a great nation, and then the most mighty, and glorious the world had ever seen.
In Phase II, Followers Join In, Hitler solidified his political base. Throughout the 1930s, Hitler’s hold over the German people grew ever stronger. To the point where in time it became a stranglehold. Hitler’s powers of persuasion, especially his oratory, were immense, and he used them to full effect. Moreover he backed up what he said with what he did. He had zero compunctions about using his increasingly dictatorial powers to ram through his increasingly compliant parliament laws so restrictive they would’ve been regarded as inconceivable just a couple of years earlier.
In Phase III, Leader Starts In, Hitler began executing policies and programs that by any measure were “bad.” For example, in 1935, two years after he came to power, Hitler got passed the Nuremburg Laws, intended to address “the Jewish question.” As I wrote in Leadership from Bad to Worse, the passage of these laws reduced Jews to second-class status in a single stroke, and they were the precursor to the genocidal policies that followed several years later.
Finally in Phase IV, Bad to Worse,Hitler had full and free rein. Full and free rein completely to dominate the German people. Full and free rein to shake up starting in 1936 the international order. Full and free rein three years later to start the Second World War. And, finally, full and free rein beginning in the early 1940s to annihilate or to try to, especially but not exclusively every Jew in Europe.
To be clear, Hitler did not, nor could he have done what he did alone. The progression to which I allude was led by Hitler. But alongside were cadres of his followers, ranging from those up close and personal, his acolytes, to those at a great remove, ordinary Germans caught, voluntarily or involuntarily, in the Fuehrer’s web. Put directly, there can be no bad leaders without bad followers. There can be no bad leadership without bad followership.
Similarly, bad leadership can be stopped ONLY by good followership. Good followers stop or at least they slow bad leaders. No bad leader ever wakes up one fine morning and says, “Oh, golly, gee, I’ve been bad. I must, I will, change my errant ways!” Bad leaders can be, will be, stopped ONLY if someone(s) stops them.
Oh, did I mention this post was a lesson? A history lesson. Did I mention it has nothing whatsoever to do with politics in the present? It’s about politics in the past. It’s only about politics past. Which means that any parallels to the present are purely, entirely, totally and wholly and completely coincidental.