The folly of leadership is...
Hello, in an American video game, there's this dialogue between the protagonist and the leader of a secret society.
Sebastian: The folly of leadership is knowing that no matter what you do, behind your back there's hundreds certain that their own solution is the sounder one, and that your decision was the by-product of a whimsical dart toss. I pronounce the blast sentence and I soak the critical fallout. I make the decisions no one else will. Leadership, I wear the albatross and a bull's-eye.
I looked up "folly" in various dictionaries, but still "the folly of leadership" doesn't make any sense to me. So I was wondering if you could explain it to me.
Audio: https://voca.ro/edy68YzxNET
Thank you.
Edited: I added a couple of following lines and the audio link.
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 9
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I think the speak is using "folly" the mean "idiocy" or "madness," which is not strictly correct, but I've heard other native speakers use "folly" in this way. Native speakers, of course, do not always speak only in ways that are strictly correct.
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Nikita, I agree that this sentence does not use “folly” in an appropriate way. It would be better to say, for example, the “irony” of leadership.
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Folly in this case can mean mistake.
"The folly of leadership is knowing that no matter what you do, behind your back there's hundreds certain that their own solution is the sounder one".
Will mean
A mistake in the part of leadership was believing that whatever you do, others will have ideas and believe that those ideas are better.
Another example example: the man's folly was driving on wet winding roads where he believed that no other car drove.
The man made an action without thinking of the consequences.
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In this context I would paraphrase "the folly of leadership" as "the foolishness of believing you're actually leading anyone at all". Sebastian gives us two reasons. He brings up the fact that hundreds of people believe they have better solutions then the leader. They also believe that the leaders decisions are based on "a whimsical dart toss", which is to say, they are based on chance or luck, and not on serious thought and experience.
In the British context a "folly" can describe a building or some other structure that was built to impress but doesn't serve any useful purpose. So "the folly of leadership" could mean "your leadership is artificial and doesn't really serve a purpose".
Sebastian doesn't seem very happy in his leadership role!
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