The leaders and the led...

I wanna hold your hand (1978)
Director: Robert Zemeckis (debut)

I remember growing up watching many of Zemeckis directed movies. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I came across this film which was set in 1964 New York when the Beatles visited New York to appear at the Ed Sullivan's Show.

At one look, it appears like the director is trying to recreate the atmosphere and the mania associated with the arrival of the Liverpool lads at the Big Apple. Looking at the bigger picture, he seems to be ridiculing the younger generation's eccentricity, if not fetishism to pop culture.

It tells the tale of a group of youngsters who make a trip to New York to catch a glimpse of the Fab Four. Each of them has a different agenda; to watch the Ed Sullivan Show, to snap pictures of Beatles, to partake in anti-Beatles' rally, to impress a girl and so on.

In no way was the film a groundbreaking feat. All you throughout the offering are screaming and shrieking bevvy of girls before and during the Beatles' show. Even though the setting is supposed to the mid-sixties, one cannot help but have an 80s feel to throughout the film.

It is interesting how the storyteller managed to make a movie about the Beatles without actually making them appear on the screen. The 'appearances' are restricted to their 'voices' in the background and their songs. 

We are all so easily suggestible. We are easily swayed by the consensus of the masses. Some of us are spineless. We walk around like zombies following the scent of the herd. Sometimes, our senses get all entangled. We cannot comprehend whether our likes are related to our nostalgia, our simple cravings for the unattainable, our biological need or is a way to satisfy our sexual pervasions. Our fetish is further fanned by the wind of mass media and commercialisation. Every day a new 'want' is created. And many lose sleep to achieve it. At least it gives them something to forward to in their otherwise mundane life. They have overcome many major hurdles establishing themselves as the ruler of the world that they are trying to find the fine prints to perfect it. Paradoxically, it only brings them down. Or maybe, it has always been like this - the victors or elitists writing and re-writing the course of history whilst the weak majority just trail along, sometimes paying with their lives.

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Automatons, are we?

 Kardashians - fiz-x.com

This post was spurred with someone mentioning how the whole Government machinery has suddenly found new vigour to streamline all its dealings. At a wink of an eye, civil servants who all this while had not been civil enough to show the gratitude to the salary that the taxpayers paid them, have found rejuvenated zest to right their wrong of so many decades. Have they really turned over a new leaf? Have they had their wings clipped or hand tied that prevented them from doing what they were yearning to do all these while - to serve? Are these moves just reactionary to the change in the tide of the time?

My thoughts were cradled back to a time in our recent past. The mantra of the day then was that we were to become an industrialised and advanced country by 2020. Wealth and money were then the new God. The yardstick to gauge the advancement of a society was the material things, not civic-mindedness, positive human values or culture. Megalomania was an accepted and revered trait. At that time, the obsession to become rich, if possible overnight, was on everyone's mind. To be rich was being successful, being poor a failure.

Why was that so? The leader then said so.

Syed Qutb - Wiki

That is the psyche of an average man. He is so fickled. He needs a hero figure that he looks up to for guidance. The nearest superhero icon to him is the leader that leads that bring their tribe/nation/congregation through their daily dealings. This must have been the case of the Hindu mythology that put King Rama at the status of a demi-god or even of that of an avatar of God himself. His conduct and decisions in life-changing situations became the foundation of how life on Earth should be lived.

In the present times, this vacuum must surely be filled up by rock stars, pop artists and icons who do nothing like Kendall Jenner and the rest of the Kardashians.

Realising this, Syed Qutb, one of the critical conspirators in extremist Islamism, had posited that people, in general, do not know what they want. They just thread through life like sheep grazing in the field just following the herd. The shepherd needs to guide the passage of flock; to the grassland or the abattoir. The entrepreneur Steve Job, on working to come up with the next generation handheld communication device had been heard to have said when criticised about the acceptability of his new gadget, "People don't know what they want. We'll show them what they want!"

patriotretort.com

Something can go so wrong unchecked under our very eyes for so long with us realising. We are only jolted to reality with a hard jolt that occurs occasionally. We are easily swayed with rhetorics and hero-worship. We follow blindly without thinking. The thinkings ones are too much cowed into submission by the voice of the majority. The occasional scream of realisation by the minority for sense and equity to prevail is cast aside as elitists.

In a way, we are all ignorant children mesmerised to the tune of day to be led blindly into our destruction. Some would call it the lure of the Evil, Satan's mischiefs, negativity or the Dark Forces. I would call it our ignorance. The only way to combat this innocence is to peel open the inner eyes of awareness and enrich our treasure cove of knowledge. 

Reference: The Fish stinks from the Head.

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Power corrupts

Ibn Khaldun

Heard about a study in psychology by a celebrated psychologist, Dr Dacher Keltnar, from UCLA recently. He stated that empathy and all the values traditionally viewed as virtuous are the things that propel a person to hold power. He is given the power to rule over them by the people who sees these noble qualities positively. Once, the leaders are perched at the top, they somehow lose the same values that brought them to the top. The humility, the patience and the empathy that made them leaders do not apply to them anymore. This, he called 'power paradox'.

This fact was shown by him by a simple social experiment. At a road crossing, smaller cars belonging to people of the lower rung of the society tend to slow down and stop for people to cross than bigger powerful cars of the rich. He proposed that the poor and the powerless look out for each other, whilst the powerful feel disdain. Well, perhaps that is why most organised religions look at the rich with scorn. Even Gandhi suggested that he sees God and Godliness in the eyes of the poor. The society looks at the wealthy with suspicion as if they could not have gained their wealth honestly but by selling their souls to the Devil!

Confucius

Power always had a bad reputation. Traditionally, leaders have followed Machiavellian mantra to usurp and retain power. Among the doctrines accepted as mandatory to retain power is to be devious, to maintain a false squeaky clean image, to put a front to real conniving intentions and to ensure that one is always in the limelight.

The Communists thought that giving too much power to an individual is dangerous, hence their idea of a Politburo and the state-controlled facility. See how that turned out in fifty years time - utter failure.

Many years ago, Confucius also said the same, that wealth (and power) in a family only last three generations.

Almost prophetically, Ibn Khaldun, the Islamic historian, philosopher, mathematician and historian among other things, echoed the same sentiments. Tribes or regimes which come to power only last three generations. The first generation which preserved the hardship to built the empire would prosper by assimilating with the subject that they conquer. The Empire would reach great heights. The second generation, the offspring, would have the pleasures of comfort given by the generation before but would be sorely lacking in the killer instinct and street-smartness to 'go for the kill'. They would pass on by with the help of others associated with the founders. Now, the third generation would be taken for a ride by vultures around him. Pampered and elevated to level beyond their capacity by their mere blue blood, they thrive as puppets to masters who would mastermind the Empire's downfall!

It is a cycle. Power is given because of the virtues. Power breeds decadence. Power destroys. And the seed of a new energy grows. Just like energy is the moving force in physics, power is the determining force in the dynamics of sociology and all types of politics, including family politics! Everyone ones to be a leader but lest not we forget, with great powers come great responsibility.

Leadership by example?

You do not know how much an impact you leave on the ones around you whether you like it or not. Most of the effect is unintentional and mostly occurs by passive diffusion. You also learn so much by looking at people around you just as much as you do to them! Others are teachers to you just as much as you are a teacher to them.

For all those unsavoury situations that my siblings found themselves in, I was admonished for not setting a good example, reminding of the obscure  things that I had done unwittingly or otherwise when I decided to let my hair down. I thought it was unfair for I had to be on my toes at all times for the younger ones to emulate. It was not fair to me for being first born. I did not ask to be born first. I needed space and freedom to express. I wondered why I was not 'praised' for all the exemplary things I did but that was a no brainer, I was expected to set a good example for the younger ones to follow anyway. In return, apparently, I was given certain privileges that I never saw coming!


In working life, I thought that I was just an average Joe who did his job without leaving much of an impact to my subordinates. I thought they would like to forget their working experience with me, carrying on with lives, forgetting it just as another bad phase of experience that came with the job.
Surprise, surprise. A chance meeting with not one but many of my down lines proved otherwise. Seeing many of them deciding to plunge into the same line of work as me, quoting me to be their role model was a pleasant eye opener! The words of my mother in my childhood came sprawling down. You do not realise how much you influence the people around you.

A few years ago, a speaker speaking of the then materialistic direction that the society was heading without improving the spiritualistic and humanistic development of its members, he had this say. From time immemorial, human beings have been looking for role models and heroes to follow. The usual figure that they tend to look up is their leader. They dress, behave, talk, look and try to follow the leader's footsteps. This probably how the mythological tales of Ramayana came about. There must have been a royal family revered by its citizens. People must have been awed by their dizzying display of power and fortune. Over the generations every bit of their actions, inactions, conduct, judgement, response in situations have been amplified, sugar coated, exaggerated and been used as a yardstick of how man should lead his life.

We need to be led

The Birth of a Nation (1915)

Yes, this silent film is 100 years old. It is the oldest movie that I have seen to date. It a 3hour long movie which drew a lot of flak from those who disagreed with some of the historical facts depicted here, especially as Ku Klux Klan is shown in a favourable light. It shows the most important single event that affected what would eventually transform into the biggest nation in the world one day - the Civil War and the aftermath.

It is an intense saga of brethren of a nation who are divided by their need to use slaves but united by their Aryan roots.

The first half of the movie dwells into the nation engulfed in Civil War. Two families are torn apart as collateral damage of the war. Brothers are fighting each other and are held as war criminals. The real drama starts after Abraham Lincoln is assassinated when his post-war plans are hijacked by carpetbaggers and profiteers. This is the time of Reconstruction after the war.

The black slaves, who all these while have quite contended with their simple servant life were suddenly told that they were free after the Civil War - all men were equal and free. They need not slave in the fields but can enjoy life instead, dancing and boozing.
The majority of the South, the blacks, are happy with such an arrangement. They are coerced to vote in their own people to Congress. Slowly the slaves become the masters. They demand equal rights, like walking shoulder to shoulder with their masters. They create a mockery of the legislative system with their inexperience. A black militia group also comes to fore to mete out justice. Even the jury is predominantly made up of former slaves. It appears like the slaves are on a rampage to avenge years of oppression.

Many injustices happen. The whites feel intimidated. It appears that the slaves do not know how to handle their new found freedom.
So all legal avenues fail to provide justice, what do people do? They recoil into religion and race!

In rolls Ku Klux Klan as a reactionary group to combat the menace of the growing black militia. In the turn of events, the Southern whites also found their Northern whites helping to protect against the blacks through their common Aryan roots!

And everything is put back in place. The whites become the ruling force in the next election while the KKK ensures that the blacks do not vote!

Now you understand why this movie kicked up a lot of dirt after its release. Just like in India after the release of Aamir Khan's PK, people in major town in the USA rioted in 1915. The demonstrators were mainly coloured as the flick glorified KKK as saviours of the South and portrayed blacks as uncultured, uncouth and highly sexed scoundrels. Anyway, as the censor board members were mainly white, nothing really happened.

My take-home message: Men are violent creatures. They regularly suppress their fellow kind for power and control. The 1% per cent will always control the masses and that is the status quo. The shift of power to the masses cannot sustain. In order to ensure law and order, there must be leaders and followers. The race has not reached a level where it can function unaided. Just my thought...

The times, they're achangin'!

There was a time, back in the days when the upper echelon of society would just exert their authority on the mostly illiterate, the helpless, the bewildered lower crust of society or natives. Words like 'you listen', 'I tell you', 'do as I say I say, not as I do' would be used with impunity to get things done. And the the elites, the one in power, the leaders could just get away with almost anything. The simpletons amongst the working class thought the elitist knew what they were doing. They thought everything was done in the interest of what they were sent to Earth to do. It was not their position to question. Some even believed that they had descended from the Gods. To disagree was cardinal  sin and treason of the highest order. Teachers, Rulers, Leaders, Heads of Family, professionals can do no wrong. Any mishaps were pure acts of God, predestined and misadventures.
Things changed and change it did. In my mind, education and dissemination of information are the prime mover towards this end. Education empowered the small men. Information exposed the masses to what others are capable of and drove them to do the same.
Parents feel the need to partake in their children's education and not just going to let go off their responsibility but keeping on their kids activities and perhaps of their teachers'. The man with the stethoscope who were given demigod status in most communities as their patients/clients/customers are fully aware of their rights and have no qualms of seeking redress if the outcome of their ailment not to their liking! 'What till your father gets home' used to be the dreaded mantra for children a generation ago. So what say the 'Like' generation. What can he do beside talk and advise? If he lays a hand on me, I have the social services to complain to. I can also blame my future failure on the account of he being an overtly strict disciplinarian! The wife is no more a docile subservient subordinate whose life accomplishment is to look pretty and to serve you tea! She is your equal partner, no longer made from a part of you but one who would shoulder to shoulder beside you.
Same to the leaders. The era of families ruling nation are long gone. The paternalistic condescending times are all passé. At most they are puppets on display to showcase the splendour of the bygone era. Whatever good intentions the leaders have on improving living conditions of the citizens, he is still going to be met with criticism and arguments that are sometimes difficult to brush aside. Don't they know every action has its merit and demerit? True, but critiquing for the sake of argument, we are not going anywhere.
Times change and we have to change.
Maybe two centuries ago, the masses could accept something as imaginable as a virgin birth or the concept God communicating through dreams. In those days, people would hail it as a Divine miracle, build a mammoth ark or justify temporary lapse of judgement. Try doing it today. People would sneer, ridicule or even get you institutionalised!