Those of us privileged enough to have attended a high school with a good English literature teacher would no doubt have been transfixed by the story of the Pied Piper, a partly fictional character from German folklore dramatically depicted by 19th century English poet Robert Browning.

The story is set in the classical town of Hamelin on the river Weser in Germany. Overrun by rats, the mayor, council, and town’s folk were desperate to rid the town of the plague. The severity of the problem is dramatically portrayed by this line from the poem: “They [the rats] fought the dogs, killed the cats, and bit the babies in the cradles.”

The tense atmosphere inside the town hall where a meeting to seek a solution was in progress was suddenly pierced by the entrance of a queer-looking man carrying a woodwind instrument. The piper proclaimed he could rid the town of the vermin. Said he, “I am able, by means of a secret charm, to draw all creatures living beneath the sun, that creep or swim or fly or run, after me.”

After negotiating a fee for his services, the pied piper stepped out into the streets. A few shrill notes from the instrument brought rats in their thousands from their hiding places into the streets following the Pied Piper as if under the spell of an irresistible charm. And so the pied piper merrily skipped along playing as he went, with the rats in pursuit to the edge of the river Weser where they marched to a watery grave.

Those among my readers who are not enamoured with English literature may dismiss this as an irrelevant and unlikely story about rats, a piper, and his buffoonery. But think again. Have we not seen this same fatal attraction in religious cults? Remember Jim Jones who charmed well-thinking people living the American dream to leave all behind for a commune deep in the jungle of Guyana, ending in the mass murder and suicide of 918 commune members?

One need not go beyond our own shores to discover this mind-controlling religious spiritualism and fanaticism, characterised, with some amount of supporting research, as occultist. Starting in the year 1860 a wave of spiritualist-led fervour, leading to the formation of many such groups, swept the island and has continued to this day, sometimes with deadly consequences.

Then there is politics and its religious-like tendencies, which hold people loyal to a party and its leader as if they were spellbound, causing them to exhibit a degree of mindless devotion devoid of any rational thinking. Announce an election and a drunken stupor descends on large swaths of the Jamaican electorate. Some observers describe the behaviour as tribalist. Others as occultist. Whichever, this is not about to change any time soon.

The worst and most dramatic manifestation of mindless devotion to a political leader or philosophy is what we see happening in America, led by former President Donald Trump: the twice-impeached, election-losing, multiple-indicted, revenge-seeking, convicted felon and current GOP front-runner in the 2024 presidential election. Despite his very public and incurable sociopathic aversions, family members of mine in the US and friends living both here and abroad continue to stick to him like white sticks to rice, to use a popular American expression.

The word “pied” used to describe the piper means a person who induces others to mindlessly follow or imitate him or her, usually by means of charm, promises, and deception. It’s the story, the beginning, and the end of all dictators.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin is alive and well in our practice of religion and politics.

Dr Henley Morgan is founder and executive chairman of the Trench Town-based Social Enterprise, Agency for Inner-city Renewal, and author of My Trench Town Journey – Lessons in Social Entrepreneurship and Community Transformation for Policy, Makers, Development Leaders, and Practitioners.
Send comments to Jamaica Observer or hmorgan@cwjamaica.com.