I guess all of us have heard of the lemming and their traits of following their leader – regardless – even to the point of leaping off a cliff to their deaths. This “trait” has been used over the years to symbolize the following  of a “deceitful” leader, usually political, even to the point that the leader would lead them to demise.

The fact of the matter is that this is an “Urban Legend” – the legend of the lemming is untrue!

According to historical documents, this legend has quite an awful beginning; in the 1958 Disney documentary “White Wilderness”, a camera crew forced a group of lemmings off a cliff to document their supposed suicidal behavior. The film was made in Canada and lemmings were brought in for the film after they were purchased from Eskimo children. The lemmings were filmed in a variety of artificial situations and then herded to a cliff where they were pushed to the edge to simulate a migration.

It is unknown whether Disney was aware of the behavior of the film crew, but the fact remains, lemmings do not throw themselves from cliffs.

Now that the lemming legend has been exposed, it however DOES help to describe the actions of people who unquestionably follow a flawed leader. The 1960 United Artists  movie, “Elmer Gantry” depicted a con man who manipulated a female evangelist for the purpose of making money (through offerings).  Further back, Hitler was known to have charismatically spoofed the German people into following him.

History is full of these stories where people are tricked into following a person, usually to their destruction, physically or fiscally. In the news in the past few years are the names of many financial leaders who convinced people to invest their life savings in their plan, only to be later exposed to have swindled all their money! Some of them are in jail now, but many other persons have had their lives, their futures, destroyed by these people.

That brings us up to date, which includes the talk of “lemming-like” action in the political field. Obama has been compared to Hitler, and it has been observed that many people, Democrats as well as Republicans and Independents, have committed to marching to the “Obama drum”, much like the lemmings “legend”.

Personally, I don’t believe that Obama has orchestrated his rise to power alone. I think he is just a figurehead, much like the lady-evangelist in “Elmer Gantry”. I believe there is a “committee” (for want of another term to call them) who are manipulating Obama; that he is marching to THEIR drum-beat. They have used the obvious charismatic and communicative skills of this man (as long as he has his teleprompters to be able to read the scripts that are prepared for him) to “preach” what the people want to hear, prior to their leaping off a cliff!

Only time will tell. In the next fifty or so years, like the recent revelations surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy, the motivation and power behind the “Obama machine” will eventually be revealed.

Let this be a warning — don’t wait until you are at the edge of a cliff with people behind you, pushing – before you research just WHO is leading you! At that point it MAY be too late!