How To Not Be a Leader

Since the 70s, U.S. education has had “leadership” as its vector - still kindergarteners are supposed to find “The Leader in Me.” We are presently at a critical juncture, as many are frustrated about the lack of leadership; in the fight against climate change and mass shootings, high school students have emerged as figures of leadership of a different sort. How might political action look that does not take the centralized form of leadership? In pursuit of this question, the arts, together with those traditionally excluded from leadership, have the potential to be experts in resisting, questioning, and ironizing the lure of the leader.