Let’s talk about sycophancy. The idea that we can get ahead as individuals by attaching ourselves to someone more powerful, more wealthy, more famous, more charismatic than ourselves even if the end result is the opposite.
Humans have practiced following as a survival strategy for as long as other humans figured out how to turn rocks and bones into weapons. Even before. ‘Simi knows where all the good nuts are buried. We’ll follow her.’ Following is not necessarily a bad thing. It is a survival strategy and has been for longer than humanity can remember.
Where following turns into sycophancy isn’t always clear. Yet, the end result makes things all too clear to the victim. Usually, sycophancy can be defined as being willing to go outside community norms in subservience to another. When Simi asks you to talk shit about Mini because she has a different idea about where to find nuts you are in danger. But when someone asks you to defame, rat fuck, or shoot someone else in order to protect the benefactor — well, then you are screwed. There are lessons here for all of humanity: Protect your fellow human beings, to start with. Don’t listen to anyone who would tell you to be a cruel asshole, to end with.
Michael Cohen was a cruel asshole. Some of the things he did were unforgivable. And yet, they were all too human nowadays. I don’t tend to blame the soldiers for the idiocy of generals. I feel sad for Michael Cohen really. Yet, I am hopeful. The fact that he looks so sad makes me recognize him as human again.
I like humans.