Look to the Meanest People You Know

First, let's make one thing clear.

I'm a horrible person.

Terrible.

Really bad.

Absolute control freak.

Pathological need to be the center of attention.

Loooove feeling important.

Love it.

Now, most of the time, all of these things would not necessarily make me a...fun person to be around.

I mean, some people put up with it, and because I do theater, some of it is tolerated because it falls under the heading of "Annoying Things About Theater People."

But your average person tends to balk at it, and I don't blame them.

They don't want any of that in their lives.

...Until there's an emergency.

In the middle of the pandemic, you saw people who previously hated Governor Cuomo and Governor Raimondo here in Rhode Island saying things like "You know, I never liked them before, but I really admire the way they handled this crisis."

What you don't seem to understand is, all the things you didn't like about them are the things that made it possible for them to handle a crisis well.

I am AMAZING in a crisis.

Point to a problem and say--

Fix this by bossing people around, while setting boundaries that people have to follow with the incentive being unending praise and gratitude.

You just described the profile of every Cancer.

When something is going wrong, look for the meanest people you know to help you.

They are the ones that will get you through this, because the people you love who are so sweet and sensitive and giving?

They are going to fall apart in Minute One of the alien invasion.

It's the jerks who are going to get us through any problem.

Because we, the jerks, have been waiting our entire lives for everyone to depend on us and give us total control over them.

It's what we dream about.

So this surprise and shock I'm seeing from people in regards to leaders who were previously thought to be overreaching and authoritarian is so strange to me.

Tyrants are terrifying most of the time, but in a disaster movie, do you ever hear one of the characters say--

You know what?  We should form a committee and make decisions as a group.

No.

They pick a leader.

And they usually pick the scariest looking person.

Because that's how you survive.

I love Mr. Rogers, but notice, Mr. Rogers didn't say--

Find people who look like me when something goes wrong.

He said "the helpers" and he never really gave us details about what "the helpers" would look like, but I'm not sure he meant "people like me."

The Fred Rogers of the world are fantastic when the time comes for healing and reflection and comfort.

But when it's all going down, that's not who you want in charge.

Some people wondered when all of this started if I would have trouble with the world as it is because I without my creative outlet, I would feel adrift and lost.

The truth is--I've never felt more in my element.

That's not to say I'm not looking forward to when all this is over, but in the meantime, I'm kind of enjoying nobody criticizing me for being the way I always am.

The other day, someone actually said to me--

You know, you seem different lately.

I didn't bother to tell them that I'm the same person I always was.

It's everything else that's changed.