Superior Smearers - By James Thomas

What makes a good leader? Men and women who can hold their own and bolster the attitudes of their subjects. They can put the needs of the people before their own, even going as far as to put their life on the line to save others. They are truly remarkable people, except when it comes to electing them. In some countries, like the United States of America, in order to be given the title of chief, eligible individuals compete by entailing the way they will help the group to future voters. However, when they start to describe the many ways why they are better than the other candidates, this is when the crazy stuff starts happening. They begin to tarnish the reputation of the other competitors in order to make themselves look good. By using degrading tactics on their fellow combatants, they can prove their own reasons why they can be the best head of the group. Therefore, all potential leaders do is slander each other so they can make each other look bad in the eyes of the people they’re supposed to be governing.

In the book “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, a good number of boys are stranded on a deserted island after surviving a plane crash that happened to kill  the adults. One of the boys, named Ralph, explores the island and finds a conch. He uses this newfound tool and to summon all of the children towards him. The kids then vote Ralph the leader of the group, much to the dismay of another boy, named Jack. In Chapter 6 of this book, this dismay transforms into spite. After hunting for a supposed beast in the forest area of the island, Ralph, Jack, and another boy are discussing their adventure. But when Ralph talks about the hunters in a negative fashion, Jack becomes indignant. The latter calls his own meeting with the other boys on the island and takes Ralph’s words and warps them in order to use them against him. “‘...Ralph said my hunters are no good.’ ‘I never said that!’”(126) This exchange between Jack and Ralph shows how one potential chief will slander the other to look better in the eyes of the public. When trying to convince his fellow islanders that he should be the new and consistent leader of the big group via displaying his own leadership skills by leading his small group of hunters failed, he turned to dirty tactics to get his way. By warping Ralph’s words and shouting them to the group, Jack implanted the thoughts in the boys that he needed them to have: Ralph has no faith in them. By doing this seemingly little action, Jack has infected the boys’ minds with distrust in the other candidate. This is exactly how Jack was able to start his own group later on. He swayed most of the boys’ opinions to his side by slandering Ralph’s reputation and making him look unfit to lead. This is how he became the leader of the bigger group.

This example from “The Lord of the Flies” can be likened to a different example in the real world. The example of a real election happening right at this very moment between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. These two candidates are the frontrunners for the Republican spot in the Presidential election in the United States of America. Due to this, both of them are trying their hardest to convince the people in every state in the country that they are the best choice for the most taxing job on all the Earth. However, while each of their campaigns were used in a positive manner for a good amount of time, once the going got rough for both of them, slander took its roots in the situation quickly. A few weeks ago, a nude picture of Donald Trump’s wife Melania went around circulating the internet, ridiculing and berating her. Trump was annoyed by this. To retaliate, he falsely accused Ted Cruz of using this picture in an ad of his. On Twitter, he said “Lyin' Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin' Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!” In order to take attention off of himself and his family, Donald Trump had to use slander to put this same attention on his opponent Ted Cruz. This way, all of the eyes in the nation would be on him, awaiting his response, instead of on Trump. This also causes the public to think what secrets Cruz could be hiding from them, and not think about Trump’s wife being the first lady. While at first, Cruz reacted normally in this situation and politely complimented Trump’s wife, he soon followed suit in Donald’s slander and began calling him out, calling him a coward. All this does is prove how easy it is for potential leaders to slander each other in order to make themselves look like the better person to lead to the rest of the public, even in real life.

In conclusion, in both real life and pure fiction examples, potential leaders barate each other and tarnish each other’s reputations in order to get the people’s vote. They do this by slowly putting the negative thoughts of the other candidates in the public’s heads, helping them come to a decision not to vote for them. They can also do this by outright instigating the slander, getting their opponents to react back at them. This makes their opponents look like children in the eyes of the nation instead of themselves, causing the nation not to vote for the opponent. By using slander, future chiefs can have an easier time swaying the people than by saying the good qualities they posses themselves. For this reason, it can officially be said that all prospective heads do is smear the reputations of other people so they can look unfit to lead in the eyes of the subjects they’re supposedly caring for.

Works Cited

Golding, William, Lord of the Flies New York: Penguin Group, 2003.

Drumpf, Donald J. "Lyin' Ted Cruz." Twitter. Twitter, 23 Mar. 2016. Web. 05 Apr. 2016. <https://twitter.com/realDonaldDrumpf/status/712457104515317764>.


Comments (3)

Anthony McDonnell (Student 2018)
Anthony McDonnell
  1. I agree with what you say. It is interesting how prospective leaders try to sway the people to their side by degrading their opponent(s). In that way, they can make those who stand in their way look like idiots, which in turn plants the idea of their opponent's stupidity in the minds of others, thus bolstering their own popularity.
  2. "By using slander, future chiefs can have an easier time swaying the people than by saying the good qualities they posses themselves."
  3. I like this sentence because of how relevant it is right now. In a perfect world, you would convince people to elect you based solely on your own merits. However, the human brain somehow instinctively hunts for someone who is weaker, and so slander aids the mind in this process.
Xavier Gavin (Student 2018)
Xavier Gavin
  1. I think this is a very good comparison. This topic does lend itself well to being compared in fiction and nonfiction.
  2. "By warping Ralph’s words and shouting them to the group, Jack implanted the thoughts in the boys that he needed them to have: Ralph has no faith in them. By doing this seemingly little action, Jack has infected the boys’ minds with distrust in the other candidate."
  3. Something about the wording made it stick out to me. Maybe it's because of the use of words like "warping" and "infected" instead of simply saying "Jack convinced the boys to join his side."
Zoe Chernowski (Student 2018)
Zoe Chernowski
  1. I do agree with your comparison because when many think of American politics, it often comes with the slander of politicians and lying. So it definitely makes sense you brought the modern example into light.
  2. "This way, all of the eyes in the nation would be on him, awaiting his response, instead of on Trump."
  3. I liked this because it was worded a way I wouldn't have thought of and really proves a point you're making.