Incompetent people despise challenge or correction. Whatever solution pops into their head is instantly canonized. It's not just stubborn vanity and over-self-confidence. They’ve mistaken the performance of leadership for leadership itself.
There is a clear but underrecognized pattern in the human world: Every loud THIS is a compensation for some uncomfortable THAT. So as one gains experience, this gradually begins to feel like Oppositeland:
Selfish people feel overly generous, while generous people feel overly selfish.
You can be smart or you can feel smart, but never both.
Super patriots have a magnetic attraction for tyrants.
Bullies become bullies because they're terrified.
Machos act macho because they're sexually insecure.
Smiley people can be the most vindictive.
Pomposity and arrogance are hallmarks of the dimwitted.
The most artsy-seeming people are almost never the most creative.
Flamboyantly aggrieved victims are usually coddled aristocrats.
Homophobes seldom recognize that straight people usually don't spend much time thinking about gay people.
And people never seem so low-class as when they try to act high-class.
It's mostly about the pose. The peformance. Let's try flipping the framing and see if the point settles more clearly:
Secure heterosexuals don’t try to act flamboyantly heterosexual.
Secure non-racists don’t try to act flamboyantly anti-racist.
Kind people don't plaster on flamboyant smile masks.
Genuine people don’t flamboyantly project genuineness.
Honest people don’t flamboyantly project honesty.
Smart people don’t flamboyantly project intelligence.
Helpful people don't flamboyantly offer to be helpful.
And great singers became singers because they wanted to sing, not because they wanted to be singers.
See also "Seemers Always Win: Posing as Someone Like You"
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