Worship of idols

When I play computer games, often my mind goes through random thoughts at the same time. Today this thought occurred to me.

9 Aug is Singapore National Day. Singapore has cemented her successful position not just in Southeast Asia but around the entire world since the 2010s, but in recent years there's been some quite significant controversies in the government. One is the issue of 38 Oxley Road, the former residence of Lee Kuan Yew and his family. LKY willed the house to be demolished. I cant be sure of his intentions. Googling turned up some news articles that said his reasons were "not be kept as a kind of relic for people to tramp through", "no merit as architecture", "Because of my house the neighbouring houses cannot build high. Now demolish my house and change the planning rules, go up, the land value will go up."...

I was thinking, maybe he didnt want his house to become a shrine. It seems to me that when he was in power for 30 years, he didnt start a personality cult which is commonplace for leaders in other countries.

Here's a smart thing. People still worship him of their own volition.

My theory is this. Humans are social animals, who naturally search for a leader. Humans are really like sheep that need guidance from a shepherd. So there's no need to make your own cult. Just let people worship you spontaneously.

So here's probably one of the factors that make Abrahamic religions so successful. They actively oppose worship of idols. By doing so, they pre-empt the possibility of their followers switching to new gods.

So the lesson for leaders is, dont build a personality cult. If you are worthy of one, people will do it by themselves. If you are not, forcing one will only backfire, when eventually one day your power is inevitably gone.