Our Leaders' Delusions

Our Leaders’ delusions

It’s a pity that we examine ourselves only on the last day of each year when obviously we should do this whenever necessary. But this we don’t simply do because we dislike having to admit our own mistakes. We have a strong tendency to disguise our faults for fear of being rejected. This indicates we are being held hostage by our own egoistic habits.

The bad examples of past leaders were always there to remind our present leaders of the importance of preserving not only honesty in leadership but also the need to understand other people’s situations and needs. (All elders are leaders in one way or the other because the need to show good examples is a moral responsibility that should not be taken lightly.) Still, the same mistakes are committed simply because leaders give much importance to maintaining the status quo even though the status quo showed clear signs of being a mechanical thing that dehumanizes. In fact, it is not entirely true that material prosperity will make everything right in our lives. To be sure, material wealth is a good thing but only if our moral standards are preserved. Otherwise, wealth becomes a deadweight that will make us sink to the depths of depravity.

No doubt, society can survive only if its is able to distinguish right from wrong on the basis of truth rather than on the basis of cultural, traditional or personal preferences—truth being the only ground for good human conduct. In other words, the egoistic tendency to interpret things the way one wants them to be, merely serves to magnify our differences and intensify our conflicts.

This should give us a clear idea of how peaceful co-existence-and love-can be achieved. Discarding the habits that deplete our inner strength is the first step in that direction. Indeed, unless our leaders learned to negate their own delusions, life cannot get better. If we still haven’t noticed, promises of creating better opportunities for the people have not produced those opportunities. Neither will faith that things will get better produce miracles because let’s face it, improvements come only with good deeds not with clever rhetoric occasioned by our illusions and myth.