Rabbinic Leadership and Sheeple

Reflecting on my previous post, I got to thinking that attitudes towards Rabbis (and leadership in general) might not just be a distinguishing feature of different sects of Judaism, rather it may be the most important factor of all.

Skeptics like to point out the evils of religion, and when challenged regarding the evils of Nazism or Communism they respond that those were types of religion too, with their own set of unexamined and non rational beliefs. That may be, but even more important is the fact that both Nazism and Communism were each based on the charismatic leadership of one man, Hitler and Stalin respectively.

Likewise, most religions are based (at least initially) on the charismatic leadership of one man, Moses, Jesus, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Maybe the key here is to immunize people against blindly following leaders. Maybe that's even more important than trying to get people to think rationally.

But what is it that makes some people blind unthinking adherents of charismatic but crazy leaders? Why did Germans follow Hitler, Russians follow Stalin, or Chabadskers follow the Rebbe? Were these leaders in possession of some charismatic super power that noone can withstand? Maybe you could argue that these leaders were nothing special, they just happened to be at the right time and place, and the masses projected their own visions on to them. Either way, the problem is the sheeple.

So the question becomes, what turns people into sheeple? Why are some individuals or communities susceptible and some immune? Personally I am rather iconoclastic and anti-authority (I think it's a trait that runs in my family), and I could never imagine myself being a sheeple. But maybe I just have never met a truly inspiring / charismatic leader. On the other hand, a good inspiring leader can inspire a world of good. So maybe the problem isn't really irrational thought, overly charismatic leaders or even sheeple. Maybe the problem is just people doing bad things.