The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: The Leaders We Follow

The Walking Dead Negan as a leader

2) Sometimes, It Pays To Question Your Leaders In A Zombie Apocalypse.

The smartest person in this week’s episode of The Walking Dead was Negan, bar none.

The reason was simple: He recognized how bad of a situation they were walking into, and had the brains to not only question Maggie about it but keep questioning her about it!

Brilliant.

You see, sometimes, even in a zombie apocalypse, the cream doesn’t rise to the top; sometimes, it’s just the biggest windbag or the emptiest head. When that happens, the only way to keep that giant windbag from turning into the Hindenburg is by asking questions, and making sure they’re staying on a course that will not get everyone killed.

Now, obviously, Maggie is not empty-headed by any means, but by the same token, she was also obviously not thinking clearly, and it seemed like only Negan was willing to question that fact.

It is essential for a working society that people be willing and able to question their leadership, even if — Sometimes especially if — they’re popular, because it’s when the leader is most popular that they can often make the dumbest decisions, as their popularity can become a shield, with other members of the group equating criticism or even questioning the leader’s decisions as “disloyalty” or even treason.

Remember, the leader’s decisions affect the group as a whole, if something about their decisions doesn’t sound right, you need to question it, even if only to make others in the group hear the question being asked so that they have to think about it. If everyone is too afraid to question the leader for one reason or another, then that leader could get everyone killed by doing something that could have been stopped if just one person was brave enough to stand up and ask: “Should we really be doing this?”

Sometimes, dissent really is the highest form of patriotism.