The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Follow The Leader
By Liam O'Leary
The Walking Dead – Pamela Milton
If your leader isn’t working for the group, they shouldn’t be leading.
I suppose I should correct myself from the last entry: A leader isn’t only good so long as they’re sane enough to do the job, they’re only good so long as they’re serving the group.
Now, I say this because the very nature of leading people means you’re accepting a certain amount of responsibility for those people, their well-being, their success, and (In a zombie apocalypse, at least) their survival. If your leader isn’t working towards those things, they’re failing at the job.
Care for a textbook example of “not working for the group”? How about what Pamela Milton did in The Walking Dead series finale? As a massive horde of climbers descended upon the Commonwealth, Pamela, rather than try to lead the dead into a place where their skills or numbers wouldn’t be a factor, chose not only to abandon all but the most affluent citizens to the zombies but to order the Commonwealth army to funnel the dead towards everyone else. That isn’t just not working for the group, that’s actively trying to get them brutally killed.
The leader of your group should be trying to do whatever they can to keep your group alive and to keep them free. They should not be selling them out to hostiles, throwing them into a meat grinder for their own selfish aims, abandoning them to anybody, living or dead, or manipulating them. That last one is especially important, as it might be the least obvious and will likely be cloaked in lies, conveniences, half-truths, and empty promises.
If they are doing these things, you can’t trust their judgment anymore, as it’s clear they’re putting their own selfish aims and desires ahead of the survival of your group and will probably have no issue sacrificing your lives to achieve them. You should dump such a leader at the first opportunity.
If your leader isn’t working towards your group’s continued freedom, prosperity, and survival…then it’s high time they stopped being your leader.