Strike the Shepherd...

We've all heard the saying, "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter."  It's from Scripture in Zechariah 13:7 and fulfilled in Jesus in Matthew 26:31, but many people around the world believe it today.  It's the philosophy that led to targeting Osama bin Laden as a means of taking down Al Qaida, and even terrorism as a whole.  I recently read an eye-opening book called The Starfish and the Spider that made me think about this philosophy in a whole new way.  The authors describe decentralized organizations, where the top leader has decentralized his organization to such a point where the leader is relatively unimportant in the whole organization's being.  A key point in the book is that when a centralized organization attacks a decentralized one, the decentralized one becomes even more decentralized, making it bigger and more dangerous.  A prime example of this would be the US takedown of Napster, which led to even deeper decentralization of illegal file-sharing.

I just watched Invisible Children's newest short film, Kony 2012.  While there are many articles in defense and in opposition to this film, I have a different question.  Why does the LRA continue to exist?  The movie makes the argument that Joseph Kony is fighting solely to keep his own power.  However, I suggest that today, it's next-to-impossible for such a large group to form, stay together, and grow solely on a single leader's need for power.  There has to be a reason for the members of the group to stay together.  The movie makes the LRA out to be a highly centralized organization, and I wonder if it is centralized as they claim.  The fact that the entire force seems to have moved out of Uganda in response to many different organizations' efforts makes me wonder if they are more mobile and flexible than thought.  I do believe that Invisible Children and other multilateral forces may be able to capture Kony and bring him to justice.  I wonder, however, what will happen when he is taken out.  The sheep will definitely scatter, but the question is....is that a good thing?