Why America has a followership problem.

According to Brooks, “To have good leaders, you have to have good followers, be able to recognize just authority, admire it, be grateful for it and emulate it”. Today we do not have good followers which plays a big part in America’s problems today. By Americans being strong advocates of individuality and equality that may be a contributor to the issues; we cannot blame the leaders if we do not support and follow what that say. 

In his latest column at the New York Times, David Brooks says that our skepticism in authority has resulted in our refusal to deem anyone worthy enough of leading us because we think that we're just as smart as everyone else. And this is why we end up with “opposing authority” movements, such as Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Parties. They reject hierarchies and leaders because they don't believe in the concepts. Although Brooks says our country doesn’t have a leadership problem, we have a follower problem, and before we can have these great leaders again we will have to re-learn how to “elevate those who are extraordinary,” and “trust their discretion.”

In my textbook, Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum, it states that the old adversary culture of the intellectuals has turned into a mass adversarial cynicism. The common assumption is that the elites are always hiding something. I was taught in grade school, that when Lincoln was president he told everyone not to get good from other countries. Americans did so anyway, which s a reason for today's issues. As David Brooks said, "Some system of authority is a requirement of all communal living."

Do we have a leadership problem or a follower problem? Or both?