Harbingers of DOOM  

21st Century Leadership from an Angle

This year has been a blur of angry, determined mobs on the move; chanting, rallying, barricading and occupying. When hundreds of thousands of Malaysians all dressed in black, gathered at a stadium, they were rallying against what was said to be an “unprecedented electoral fraud” spurred by the country’s governing party being accused of dirty tricks prior to election. There has certainly been brutality in the Middle East. Last month, peacefully protesting individuals in Turkey were sprayed with teargas by the police for trying to protect what they value, defending their rights and democracy, which marked the beginning of the Turkish Occupy movement; #OccupyGezi. Elsewhere, angry Mexican voters, Egypt’s massacre and the divided Syrian rebels kept themselves busy warding off global peace. While each protest movement differs in scale and motive, all have one thing in common. They have, of course, been heavily influenced and further exacerbated by the act of abusive power and control.

Amidst the bleakness of this social age of power and dominance staring all the while in the glare of a square-faced hypnotizing pool that radiates ultraviolet consumerism, microwave activists and infrared celebrity. This is the kind of conduct that international satellite news stations relish. Soon news anchors oozed with tales of misdeeds, political quirks, abusive power, electoral frauds and loony’s on the rise. It’s bloody interesting and confusing and along with violence and corruption, one of the more captivating elements of our experience on this dirty little circle. News anchors also talked quite a lot about Liverpool’s Champions League comeback and the birth of a royal baby, but these are not topics that define our species. Of course leadership is not a straightforward topic, not for me, not for any of us, and the injection of force and the invasion of privacy is about to produce some diabolical consequences.

The Three Middle Eastern Trailblazers of the disputed countries trying to calm the protests in their individual regions signify oncoming Armageddon in the Middle East, which must be awful for their confidence- everywhere those dread riders canter they’ll be greeted with shrieks and condemnation. Not even the most generous spinster would welcome Bashar with a kebab and a bottle of arak. No rosy-faced little Turkish girl will leap into Erdogan’s pristine arms without ever smelling the egoistic guilt of terrorizing innocent civilian. Yet, like Royals, the Trailblazers continue their grim duty as “leaders” or as I like to call them; harbingers. Harbinging like there’s no tomorrow- and once we protest, there won’t be.

The harbingers in the early 90’s were far more appreciated and perhaps yet more iconic. I mean, they had to be. The 19th century was indeed the time “when villains came out to play.” Well, maybe not “play”, but to promote world domination. With enough insanity to give rise to the world’s greatest leaders. These were the signifiers of a golden age of liberty. Maggie Thatcher with her yawning voice, broke the spell, the unseen bond that connects us all and prevents us from being subjugated by tyranny; the spell of community. Gandhi, a simple-minded, frail little man with his wisdom-filled eyes and an odd diet lead his country to independence through compassion, kindness and peaceful non-compliance. Nelson Mandela unified a continent based on equality and justice. What do they all have in common? Power. Their common ground after obtaining this coercive power was the ability to influence their followers; to change attitudes, beliefs, behavior, values, established equality in society and offered us salvation at times of great need. They represented hope and escape to a lot of people, hence their title, “Harbingers of Hope”.

However, with all harbingers, we can intuit intent. One can always tell when being pulled by the leg. This is particularly evident in today’s leaders. After all that has happened recently, it seems as if our world is being lured up in a vortex of hedonism, deveins, decadents, racism, destruction and all these bad séances that is corrupting its positive, pure nature. The government plays a significant cause in all these destructions through their unfair voting schemes, war, democracy, religious fanaticism, and the exertion of force and power on innocent civilians. After all, the greater the power, the greater the obligation to be decent. Or as Stan Lee put it- in the mouth of Spider Man’s uncle “with great power comes great responsibility”, a dictum so undeniably socratic that I’d not be surprised if it were Socrates. Spider Man’s uncle’s dictum though is frequently misled; often with great power comes a right excrementalist and by having listened to countless tales about misdeed from my distant relatives living in various Middle-Eastern countries,Turkey and Nigeria, one begins to understand why.

With all that has happened in the world this year; all the mayhem, the tittle-tattle, the protests, the riots, I sometimes consider today’s “harbingers” to be riding a pink unicorn trotting through the world pooping glitter. “They are filling our minds with glitter poo!” I’d tell myself after watching the news on whistleblower; Edward Snowden. I don’t know a great deal about international espionage, but sometimes one senses that information regarding our invasion of privacy, we should know about. It is our right as human beings to have our personal information kept private. Initially they said “We’re doing this to protect you from terrorism. We’re the government!” But anytime they’re annoyed about any kind of insurgence or anti-authoritative stance, will be met with further snooping. The notion of being spied on bothers me. I don’t trust the government but to phrase John Lennon, “I am not the only one.” We know that corporations have a slight tendency toward corruption. And we are to some degree, dependant on people within those corporations to arbitrate their conduct. So it’s going to take some sort of risk, some peculiar moles like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden to demonstrate or highlight injustice.

Perhaps we need a new way to govern things around here, on this planet. Not divisive, but based on the similarities and not the differences. Ultimately all of us feel love and every religious faith has the same sort of principals and we should focus on these similarities and not the differences. I would like to see the world built on more traditional and spiritual values, not just different political parties having a go on each other, trying to score points against each other. I think there needs to be more spirituality and love in politics. We need to know that war, hate and dissonance is not the answer. Some leaders go further and choose to send the armed forces onto the streets to combat their own people, like in Turkey recently. There is no point in reacting to them with anger is there? It just further aggravates the situation.

Gandhi, in spite of his unusual sex life, he frequently said things that are apposite and profound. He said that we ought imagine that we each have an individual connection with an ethereal being, a God or higher power. When someone a leader, a teacher or an enemy attacks you, it is as if they are petulantly disgruntled and dissatisfied with their own connection to the universe and like snitchy little berks, reach over and yank at your tendril. We are all connected to an objective higher mind and through that to each other, so why bother jerking around with other people’s connection? It’s a senseless interference. We all do it, but really what’s the point of spraying teargas at our fellows? You may as well go into your garden and holler abuse at a mushroom. In the end it’s between you and God.

With that being said, our leaders need to be in a position of servitude not power and it is our responsibility to make sure that they stay on track. Don’t let people in power tear the values that hold our communities together. Long past are the days of monarchs and rulers who believed that the peasants were there to serve their every whim. Our nation’s leaders are the public’s servant or in the words of comedian/activist Russell Brand, “our leaders are trusted servants not our masters.” Our leaders ought not govern. They should be in a position to serve.

As you have probably already realized, I may not know a great deal about politics to ponder a solution. But I know that it isn’t political. The solution is all around us. We all just need to look around us and realize that we are all united. We are all each other. We are all connected as one. Separation is an illusion, there is only love. We need to change. To do so we need to be united; we the human beings and this planet. Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

In this simple sentiment we can find hope, as we could with the harbingers of hope. Based on what has been said and occurred this year, it should be clear that the leadership qualities adopted by our past leaders vary in impact and ambition compared to today’s world leaders. Above all, there was cooperation. It did not require protests- or tyrants. This is because they take advantage of all their sources of power and use the power they have for good. Although some use the power they have to poo glitter all over the world. Very few countries and societies have come close to achieving good leadership and governance in its totality. However, to bring about a peaceful new revolution for the young people to grow up free from glitter poo-ing unicorn leaders, actions must be taken towards this ideology with the aim of making it a reality.

Xcape The Tempest