Vicarious learning or social learning (described by psychologist Bandura) lets us know that human beings learn by imitation. The context in which we move offers us behaviors that, sometimes imperceptibly, we turn into models. It is a learning that is done through observation. Neuropsychology tells us that there are neurons called “mirror neurons” that act through imitation. That is to say, that a child or an adult observes certain behaviors in other people that later, thanks to the mirror neurons, they will imitate.
According to Bandura, four requirements are necessary for social learning to occur: attention (observe carefully), retention (assimilate what is observed), reproduction (imitate the behavior), and motivation (be interested). The copied behavior can have a positive or negative character. That is why it is so important to offer children and young people role models who, when imitated, help them to be better people.
How can you put up with such irresponsible, hypocritical, indecent, shameless and insulting behavior like that of the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson? And not only the chief executive but all those men and women who accompanied him at the illegal parties. Which reveals a worrying level of servility. They preferred to laugh thanks to the boss, attend the party, celebrate “Wine Fridays” and bring their bottles of alcohol… without thinking about the contempt that these events meant for the citizenry. Parties were celebrated by those who forbade the people to organize them. The facts are a bit far from us geographically, but they affect us as citizens of the world and members of a European democracy.
The way of exercising authority is very important in a democracy. Because those who have been placed in a position of responsibility by the will of the people, have the status of subjects. The one who votes commands and the one who is elected serves. Not the other way around. The chosen person acquires an indisputable responsibility. The first of all is to serve as an example to the citizens of a country.
A few years ago, I directed a course for directors of educational centers in the Argentine city of Posadas, in the province of Misiones. To make visible the fundamental idea that authority is more a way of being and acting than a way of saying, I carried out an activity that had two parts.
I asked five assistants to volunteer. I handed them a rope about ten meters long. And here comes the first part. I asked them to stand one behind the other, holding on to the rope, at a distance of two meters. The last one I named chief and asked him to give orders about what he wanted them to do. The orders were being carried out: go straight ahead, walk faster, stop, turn left, go slower, crouch down a bit, raise your left hand…
The participants were carrying out the orders as faithfully as possible. When they couldn’t hear well, they looked back and asked him to repeat the order. The one who had assumed the command functions did not carry out all the orders. He limited himself to ordering and checking that the subjects complied with the instructions.
It said that the activity consisted of two parts. This was the first. To carry out the second, I stood at the head of the line, put the rope over my shoulder and left behind me, holding on to the rope, the five volunteers, separated by equidistant distances. The only order I gave them was the following:
– Follow me and do what I’m doing…
I was moving forward and taking the initiative: I turned to the right, I moved faster, I crouched, I stopped, I turned to the left, I raised my right hand… I didn’t have to say a word. They were repeating what I did in front of them. I just had to think that my initiatives were visible and feasible for those who followed me.
That is the conception of an educational authority. The one who directs is a “primus inter pares”. He is doing in the front line what the others have to do behind. But he does it first. Follow me is a very different verb than obey me.
When, from the authority, there is a mismatch between what is done and what is required of others, the authority sinks into disrepute. This is what happened in England in those days with its prime minister, Mr. Boris Johnson. He has demanded that citizens confine themselves and he has organized parties at 10 Dawning Street, which is the house that the town that had voted for him has given him.
There is an aggravating circumstance in his behavior which is lying. Because the prime minister began by denying that there had been parties and only in light of the obvious evidence, has he begun the rosary of apologies and the request for forgiveness from parliament. There are, in what has been called Partygate, two reasons for scandal. The first is the hypocritical breach of the law of those who break the prescriptions imposed on the citizenry and the lie maintained in parliament. And we must add a new reason for rejection in the lack of respect involved in organizing a party on the eve of the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth, to whom Boris Johnson apologized.
Another aggravating circumstance has been that of repetition. There wasn’t just one party, apparently. There were parties of all kinds: birthdays, farewells, celebrations, routine, as the slogan “wine Fridays” reveals… Didn’t they think they would be easily discovered in such a visible place?
The abundance of alcohol that flowed at parties is not a minor issue. So that there was no shortage, attendees were asked to bring their own bottles. And they even bought a fridge to keep the beer and other drinks cool. While it is thought that a message similar to the one on tobacco packets appears on the packaging, saying that alcohol is bad for your health, this group of irresponsible people drinks behind the backs of the people, who remain locked up in their houses by order of the drinkers.
These elite bottles were places of contagion, as are the much-criticized bottles of young people, whom I myself have described as irresponsible in this same place.
It has just been learned that Scotland Yard is going to launch an investigation into what happened. Which is good news. Because there will be reliable information. To the political investigation is now added that of a police nature.
Everything that has been said here can be applied to the behavior of those who have authority in any sphere of society: political, academic, business, religious, sports, family… I never tire of repeating it: the noise of what we are reaches the ears of our children (students, subjects, parishioners, workers…) with such force that it prevents them from hearing what we say.
How can citizens who have been fined feel for disobeying the rules imposed on them by those who broke them with impunity?
Boris Johnson refuses to resign. It is demanded by Labor and also by some members of their own party. The situation is untenable. Because the evidence is incontestable. The excuses that are being given in parliamentary headquarters, far from arousing understanding, arouse embarrassment and indignation: “I thought they were work meetings”, “the members of my team did not warn me”, “it is an ambush with cake”, says a Tory .
If a leader of this caliber tells the minions to “follow me”, those who do, will end up on the precipice. Because what this behavior leads to is a scandalous irresponsibility.
We voters have in our hands the possibility of rewarding and punishing. When it comes time to vote we can say who we don’t want and who we want in power. It is not fair for a ruler to despise the people and be enthusiastically acclaimed in the next election.
The book “Aristotle and an Armadillo Reach the Capital”, written by the American philosophers McCathcar and Klein, is subtitled “The Lies of Politicians Analyzed with Humor”. On one of the pages he presents a sketch of the White House in front of which two politicians walk. One says to the other: “But how can you be sure that you have power, if you don’t abuse it?” That must have thought the English prime minister.
The abuse of power in a democracy is much more serious than in a dictatorship. Because whoever commits the abuse betrays the one to whom he has given power so that he uses it for the benefit of all, not his own.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.