Charismatic singers, actors, religious teachers. When someone mentions our favorite religious teacher our ears pick up. There are people if you just mention the name of some actor or singer of religious leader will get all excited immediately. If you mention some other name they will right away fall asleep. What makes people like that? And not just that we follow religious leaders that know no more why they became famous more than actors or singers. We long to be like them. And their fame as a rule fades. What is the meaning of this? This charisma is so intoxicating people that have it never stop to ask why they have it, and those of us that follow these leaders never stop to ask what is it that make us so certain that these people are divinely inspired.
What I think is this is all a kind of collective mild insanity. The problem gets aggravated when the leader himself has some aspect that is mad. Then the effect on others that get close to him is madness.
Is there an antidote for this madness? Not until one is aware of the problem and recognizes that he himself is under some kind of powerful influence. But even then I don't think one can escape without some kind of dramatic wake up call.
It makes a huge difference who the leader is. But sometimes it does not seem worth the effort to see if the alpha tzadik really is a tzadik or not. enough idol worship of the alpha tzadik should be enough for anyone to head for the hills.
The problem with celebrity culture, worship of the tzadik, charisma, is that when they fade out as they must, we are left with the ruins to pick up. The tzadik worship is really no different than falling in love with a doll. Further the problem is the power to persuade should not be confused with being a tzadik. The power to persuade is a means to get others to think of oneself as tzadik but it often is found in the wicked, people that get joy from wrong actions.
They can write in a way that their words are sweet. They can talk in a way that is magnetic. They can persuade people and that is power, power mixed with ignorance of right and wrong. Often their books contain with grotesque falsehoods. But it is all excused because of the power of their words.
What I think is this is all a kind of collective mild insanity. The problem gets aggravated when the leader himself has some aspect that is mad. Then the effect on others that get close to him is madness.
Is there an antidote for this madness? Not until one is aware of the problem and recognizes that he himself is under some kind of powerful influence. But even then I don't think one can escape without some kind of dramatic wake up call.
It makes a huge difference who the leader is. But sometimes it does not seem worth the effort to see if the alpha tzadik really is a tzadik or not. enough idol worship of the alpha tzadik should be enough for anyone to head for the hills.
The problem with celebrity culture, worship of the tzadik, charisma, is that when they fade out as they must, we are left with the ruins to pick up. The tzadik worship is really no different than falling in love with a doll. Further the problem is the power to persuade should not be confused with being a tzadik. The power to persuade is a means to get others to think of oneself as tzadik but it often is found in the wicked, people that get joy from wrong actions.
They can write in a way that their words are sweet. They can talk in a way that is magnetic. They can persuade people and that is power, power mixed with ignorance of right and wrong. Often their books contain with grotesque falsehoods. But it is all excused because of the power of their words.
