What do you think of “Thought Leaders?” Here’s what I think: Thought leaders are illegal nobility and thought inhibiters.
The Founding Fathers put it right there in the US Constitution, a prohibition against the government granting royalty to anyone. (“No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States.” – Article I, Section 9, Clause 8). Then why do so many try so hard to create royalty anyway? And why do so many normal people buy into that load?
It must be in my American DNA. I am absolutely certain that no person is “better” than me. More capable at some things, maybe, but “better?” No way! Yet a great many institutions try to push certain people as being better than the rest of us. Progressive Politicians are certain they are better than the rest of us. You need only listen to their stand-by excuse for all the new laws they pass: “People are too stupid to take care of themselves, so we need this law to protect them.”
But Progressive Politicians aren’t the only culprits. Recently I looked into LinkedIn’s “Thought Leaders.” Those “Thought Leaders” (and their kindred, “Influencers”) get special access to posting articles that are pushed onto everyone’s screen. Well I am not the only person who wondered how LinkedIn “Thought Leaders” were chosen. Turns out there is actually a comment thread on the topic of how to gain such access. The same thing happens with writing articles at Inc.magazine online, and probably countless other places.
From what I can tell, a person might become a “Thought Leader” by being loud or politically well-connected. Posting frequently in a variety of forums might help too. Certainly if someone gains notoriety in some realm, that helps too. (Although the realm may be unrelated to the thoughts they purport to lead. Hollywood celebs and political comics come to mind there. No brains, but famous, therefore “Thought Leaders.”)
Here’s my problem with these people: These “Thought Leaders” promote their own ideas and suck the air of contrary thoughts. The danger in having certain people promoted as “Thought Leaders” is that everyone else will stop having their own thoughts. We’ll all be kowtowed into believing that the “Thought Leaders” are designated so because they are the nobility of thinkers. They have formed a consensus on their topics and no other thoughts are permitted. This has actually happened with the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) crowd. Mere expression of skepticism is cause for derision from the followers of the “Thought Leaders” there.
However, if you can resist the pressure, and merely listen to these not-any-better-than-you pundits, then use their verbosity to help you formulate your own ideas that you will act on…well then those “Thought Leaders” may actually have done some good. And so much the better if the ideas you create end up in a product or service that takes down a “Thought Leader” or two. My hope is that even the AGW “Thought Leaders” will be deposed off their thrones.