Flattery – and the downfall of the leader

Who benefits?

A not so recent example would be when the chairman of a political party was visiting a hospital in Karachi and to ensure the safety of the beloved leader the hospital for all practical purposes was cordoned off for all visitors, including emergency patients

A couple of months back I was visiting a car dealership and I witnessed an interesting spectacle. The manager got a phone call from a relatively important government organisation, he was informed that the daughter of the chairman of the organisation would come to have her car repaired and not only was he supposed to give her full protocol but also to defy science and return the car within an hour. The repair in the car included a paint job which cannot be completed in an hour hence defying science became necessary.

The element that made this spectacle interesting was the fact that the manager was not called by his own organisation to give protocol but it was the government organisation in which the ladies’ father happened to be a chairman and which had no director, for that matter, indirect link with the dealership. The other element was that this car dealership was a privately owned enterprise and one would like to assume that at least protocol is not demanded from them.

We love protocol in this country. A not so recent example would be when the chairman of a political party was visiting a hospital in Karachi and to ensure the safety of the beloved leader the hospital for all practical purposes was cordoned off for all visitors, including emergency patients. As luck would have it a man with his infant daughter rushed to the same hospital at the time of the beloved leader’s visit. The infant was dealing with some respiratory issues and required immediate medical attention. Unfortunately due to the cordoning off of the hospital the infant expired. When the matter was raised the higher ups of the party were only too happy to state that the safety of the beloved leader is far more important than any infants.

Alternately a similar visit was made by the then serving prime minister of the United Kingdom with the then deputy prime minister to a hospital ward in the United Kingdom in which they were unceremoniously kicked out by the ward in-charge as they were causing disruption to the discipline of the hospital. This may sound like a myth of sorts, which has no connection to reality but this incident can very easily be viewed online.

Many times the protocol granted to public figures is labeled as a counteraction to an ever looming security threat, however it doesn’t require the sharpest mind to figure out that the so-called counter action is actually a sycophant flattering their master, for the purpose of gaining certain benefits that they would find themselves hard pressed to justify.

There is only one beneficiary in flattery and that is the person doing the flattering. The public looses and so does the political leader and the flatterer succeeds by gaining benefits and enriching himself

The protocol or flattery driven activities have numerous flaws. To name a few they are expensive. Having a squad of a dozen or so police vehicles for the security of one VIP is a burden on the taxpayer. Similarly, all other forms of the protocol are expensive as well. The public generally feels disconnected with a leadership that goes out of its way to spending the public’s funds to show their superiority compared to the average citizen. However, there is an even greater flaw that has an extremely damaging impact on the leader when a leader is surrounded by sycophants who create an environment of grandeur and tell the leader what he wants to hear as opposed to what is a reality he eventually becomes disconnected with reality and loose the ability to make objective decisions.

The public may be resentful towards their leader and may even be at the point of severely hating him. However, the leaders’ so called trusted companions, who for all practical purposes are the true beneficiaries of the leaders’ political standing, falsely inform him of a very rosy and pleasant state of affairs which are only a tale of fiction and hence the leader fails to rectify his behaviour in time and ultimately his downfall becomes inevitable. Come to think of it many political dynasties and many powerful leaders can attribute their downfall to just this fatal flaw.

A normal person not holding any position of power and probably being someone no one would bother flattering has indicators of pleasure and pain. When people make bad decisions they suffer from pain and when they make good decisions they are rewarded with certain comforts. This principle doesn’t apply to the political leader, as their flatterers will give the illusion of pleasure even though their actions are causing harm.

There is only one beneficiary in flattery and that is the person doing the flattering. The public looses and so does the political leader and the flatterer succeeds by gaining benefits and enriching himself by flattering their leaders.