I will speak today of despots. They are usually people from low estates who hit stardom by chance and become so enamoured with their status that they are consumed totally by its fripperies and charm. They are usually not well equipped with deep knowledge of the purpose of life on earth and consequently lack deep knowledge of the human condition and how to better it for the common good of all. They lack exposure and intrinsic faith in themselves.
They are shallow. In their shallowness, they value acclaim. They are usually loud about achievements and tout such achievements at every turn. They are usually not tolerant of decent and wise counsel for fear of owing allegiance to the offerors. They are worshippers of the ideal, but spare no effort to understand perimeters of the ideal.
They consider wise people as threats. For wise people see the larger picture and do not spend time on ephemerals. Power to the wise is transient. What matters to them is use of power for gaining position and influence and not for enduring positive ends for the larger number. They admire people with mass appeal for the wrong reasons. Self-acclaim is their main objective for daring into power and holding on to it. They would gladly opt to be deified. But they lose out in the end for vaulting ambition to which they are inordinately subjected as an outcrop of unbridled chase for power and influence.
Despots do not consult; they order and must be obeyed or bonds are broken. Servitude in all respects bloats their ego and nourishes enduring relationships. More brilliant people are kept at bay, for they soon discover ambivalences in thoughts, words and deeds. They are happy with an army of servants who are content with doing their unquestioned will. But the wind blows both server and served away as chaff meant to be winnowed out of seed.
For will is free, each being must render personal account without regard to pleadings that a master led one astray. They may make waves in short time perspective but the waves soon hit cliff and return to ocean waters without foam disappearing promptly as if nothing happened. Their works are suspect for they aim at not much more than accolades. Within a generation, their works of grandeur come crashing to the dust and they are consigned permanently to the dustbin of history, occasionally cited as short term wonders by those who are swept away by wondrous deeds without clearly conceived and studied long term goals.
Their sense of virtue stops at fanning mass appeal flames. Dreams are anchored largely on social rungs to climb and accentuate relevance. Time is lavished on impressions of grandeur that have little bearing on function and enduring human needs. Obviously, ideas for self-aggrandisement surge their psyche in tornado-like waves from the four corners of the world, exacerbating their self-glorification secret cravings.
They do not see the bold lines separating virtue and vice. They consequently see no heavy lines between right and wrong courses, between truth and falsehood and between light and darkness. They are vulnerable to errors of crossing the broad lines between virtue and vice, protection and defence, modesty and vulgarity, and sense and nonsense. When their ego is in control, the lines disappear altogether.
With minds anchored on vain mileage for glorification, they endear themselves inexorably to wayfarers of the same ilk, with little commitment to the common will of the majority. A body of haters of the common will and looters of the commonwealth soon form. The meeting point inevitably is the thought forms shared. Corruption aggravates the human condition in their leadership. Hawks of similar nature obfuscate their group or cadre and drive society into perdition in increasing spells of woe.
But somehow, nature is perfect. Despots grow in power and seek to outdo one another in their common trade. Their contest is usually laden with venom. Clashes occur and they cancel one another out, and unbending nature erases their tracks right behind them and a new era lights upon the land which they desecrated; for a new crop of leaders to show up. It would need cataclysm of humungous dimensions to wipe filth out, they would think. They hang on to their trade of self-deceit and deafness to wise counsel until they are consumed in their naivety. Cycles close slowly but surely. What is base and unhealthy can only lead to worsening of the human condition to the level the incident humans deserve. When volitions for betterment rise to higher planes, corrective cataclysms are released for cleansing and the start of new and more wholesome regimes.
Who can be certain what the profligacy of the past 49 years of our 54 shall bring us, considering that Boko Haram is already here? Despots of all hues are already queuing up to take us deeper into the mire. A great wind shall blow, a heavy rain shall fall, and after that a new life will sprout and blossom in a totally new ambience.