Mateo

Santillan Castro

Thinking independently

I used to think of leaders as those people who have gone through disease, loss of a family member, bankruptcy, etc., and, once they overcome those situations, they can teach the rest how to do it. I also used to think of leaders as those charismatic politicians who are followed and supported by thousands of people. But now I see it differently: the average, everyday man can be a leader -- just because he is able to think independently.

The world is full of people; we just can’t isolate from them to live on our own. Living together causes us to think similarly. We think more or less the same; the content of our thoughts are very similar, and that is fine. There is nothing to do about it but to accept it. However, there are some light rays that pass through the foliage of the tree.

As we are individuals, at the end of the day some of our beliefs spring from our personalities, our character and just the way we are. Holding on to those beliefs and guiding our actions in the light of them is, in my opinion, a way of being a leader. That is why I think that people who think independently are leaders. When I look back on my life, I find two moments in which I challenged the current thought: my decision to study philosophy, and my decision to avoid meat.

Studying philosphy

I consider my decision to study philosophy as an example of thinking independently. When I was seventeen, almost finishing high school, and I shared with my peers and family members my intention was to study philosophy at university, their answers were nothing but warnings and disappointments: “If you do so, you are going to starve”, “So… you want to be just a teacher?”, “I think you should consider studying something else”. I was determined, I really liked the courses of philosophy I took in high school, but most of the people around me were discouraging me from making that decision. These people used to think that a “proper major” would be law, medicine, engineering, etc. -- not anything related to art or literature.

When you question what’s accepted within a group of people -- family, friends, colleagues, or even something bigger as the whole society -- you will receive disapproval and anger. It was good for me to count on the support of my parents. They were concerned about my future, but they decided to support every decision I made, and they still do so. Non-traditional choices sometimes come with loneliness and sadness, and that is why it is important to be surrounded by people you can rely on, and that is also why it is important to support the ones you care about.

Avoiding meat

I’ve been questioned for questioning. Since I started growing up, I’ve been wondering why I do the things I do, looking for the reasons behind my actions. One of these things was basing my diet on meat, and I realized that my diet wasn't worth the rest of the animals’ suffering and deaths, so I decided to stop eating meat. Besides, later I learned that avoiding meat is environmentally friendly. It was a personal decision, I realized that I couldn't stand knowing that something is wrong and continuing doing it.

Since I made public that decision, most of the comments I received were bad critics: “Who put this stupid idea in your head?”, “You won’t last more than two months”, “Animals are to be eaten, what you are doing is ridiculous!”, etc. I was really underestimated.

In December 2021, I achieved four years of avoiding meat. People were surprised and couldn’t believe I made it. I think they just were not able to see that I reasoned independently, found my own reasons, and acted in the light of them.

Standing out

As said, I think it is not necessary to go through cancer or to be a famous politician to be a leader. You do not have to do something big in order to be a leader. It is not necessary to do anything “special” to be a leader but just to live your life as you want. That is, in the words of the German philosopher Hannah Arendt, a proper kind of action:

When everybody is swept away unthinkingly by what everybody else does and believes in, those who think are drawn out of hiding because their refusal to join is conspicuous and thereby becomes a kind of action. [Arendt, 1971, p. 445-6].

And that is why I started to think of myself as a leader. I am an ordinary man, I am not gifted in any sense, but I am trying to live my life as I want, considering all the possibilities by myself and deciding what is the best to do and to think. And I say that I am trying to live my life as I want and that I am trying to think independently because, as said, I live with others, I am part of a society, and their influence on me is very real.

In other words, being yourself is a kind of leadership. When the rest are the same, and you are able to think and decide independently, then you stand out.

Perceptually speaking, the leader stands out from the ground and is seen differently. The Gestalt theory states that in perceiving objects we see a figure, something that highlights, against a ground, an environment. And I think this is the case with leaders, they are seen differently, when we perceive them we bring them to the front, we focus on them in a way that we do not see them as the rest. They stand out.

In conclusion, there are different types of leaders. Some of them have struggled with different terrible situations; others have worked so hard on something that many people rely on them; but other people leader because they are able to think independently and their authenticity brings them to the foreground and makes the rest to see them as different.

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