The cult of leadership thrived on processing charisma into followers—to march off a cliff. The leaders, of course, always parachute to their own safety.

Anyone who calls themself a “leader” or advocates for “leadership” just wants to steal your wallet, or your life.

The worst rendition of this disease is the use of the term "leadership" as a collective noun, to refer to the people who supposedly lead. "A conversation with leadership" etc. It turns a former virtue into the mere accident of having a certain job. It is cancerous.

At bottom, the qualifying feature of true leadership is responsibility. If you lead something, you are responsible for it.

Sure, you may set vision and do management. Hopefully you do. But you are on the hook for it. If not, you are not a leader, but a coward.

Look around at everyone worthy of blame today. Donald Trump. Mark Zuckerberg. University presidents. Secretaries of state. The abdication of responsibility pervades them all.

The most despicable are true sociopaths, those already predisposed to seek power, who don't care that they don't care. Who don't even notice.

But equally bad, and maybe even worse, are the seconds and thirds in command, following along for selfish interest.

The leadership cult has produced an entire industry around this affliction. To be "considered for leadership," one must submit to its selfish hierarchy in advance—management treatises, retreats, task forces, 360° assessments, etc. Everything that would turn off the unconverted.

Ironically, the purpose of these instruments is to manufacture compliant automata to carry out the will of their overlords, embracing it a false sign of their own virtue, wisdom, or magnetism.

This cult then sneers at the fools who demand more of them. "They don't understand."

And so they reproduce, intensifying and further alienating themselves from their supposed constituency. This makes "leadership" a type of sectarian radicalization, in the end.