In her third volume of memoirs, Simone de Beauvoir writes about the war in Algeria and about the referendum held to allow General de Gaulle to return temporarily to power in order to restore French domination in Maghreb. When she discusses the results of the popular consultation (around 80% in favor of the general), she says: The heart of the matter is that they [the people] don’t want to be governed by their equals; they have too low an opinion of them, because they have too low an opinion of themselves and of their next-door neighbors. It’s ‘human’ to like money and watch out for one’s own interests. But if one is human like everybody else, then one is not capable of governing everyone else. So people demand the non human, the superhuman, the Great Man who will be ‘honest’ because he’s ‘above that sort of thing’. (p. 171)
This speaks millions about the attraction of populism and of the amazing opportunities that providential leaders can exploit to take themselves in the vicinity of absolute power, carried on the shoulders of a cheering crowd. Just watch what is going on right now in Venezuela – Chavez is to be admired for his audacity and for his brazen use of people’s feelings (incl. government by television, a new expression!) to justify his take-over of the country’s government.
1 comment:
Thanks for posting this. I guess this is really the point behind all this personality cult in politics, especially in communist and fascist countries, but unfortunately in many democracies as well. as long as people think, that politicians / dictators / chairmen / generals / revolutionary leaders etc. are "different" or even "better" than themselves, democracy will never work out as well as it could and should do.
Well, the sitation did improve a bit within the last 50 years i'd say, but it's still a long long way to go 'til really everyone understands, that our "leaders" aren't so much different from us and that they are much too often even more stupid than we are.. ;)
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