I don't think you have to deserve respect, you should should be respected, regardless of your choices

My statement above makes this "obsolete" ;)

Leadership in the way you describe (with animals) is vital for the break down of a community. Leadership is always temporary and doesn't let a community florish. A group of sheep are excellent survivors, birds too since they don't have a leader ship (male dominance doesn't effect a community, they are temporary, since everyone is too busy wanting to be a leader). A community is a community when it leads itself, which always has people who act like a spokes person for that community, since they have more wisdom than others. This fact doesn't make you the leader of the "pack", the wisdodm makes you drive the community and let others in that community florish with your wisdom. If you were really seen as a leader or acted like that, it would hurt the community big time, since people tend to be more carefull to do stuff without your permission (which is not the case in the Cocoon project based on your mail).

In short : we agree, just the terminology is a bit different :))

Mvgr, Martin

PS are you going to be in Gand/Gent on the Cocoon conference ?