Leaders Blind Spot
Leaders reconcile only if they have their ear on the ground. When they are surrounded by the coterie, it is a downhill path, because they lose touch with the realities.
With Xi, he has taken an aggressive stand on corruption and that has pit him up at a moral high ground. He has gone into a state of complacency wherein, he is thinking that he is the highest moral policing. In addition, he has replaced the inner coterie with loyalist, extended his term until 2035 and making everyone work concertedly in that direction.
I believe, Xi’s state of mind is detrimental than corruption. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and it is difficult to course correct. Only leaders who are guided by a strong moral compass, will course correct, and at this moment, it is unlikely from him to reverse and change direction unless external and internal realities demand a change. Xi is not alone. Phillip Stephen from Financial Times rightly said, “The fate of many Chinese emperors through the centuries shows their authority to have been absolute until the moment of their fall”. Most Leaders lean on confirmation bias and Xi is no different, when he is leaning on the coterie of sycophants for their nod.
Blindsided
I always differ with a general presumption that a national leader is culprit means the entire nation is likewise. Herein, i always insist, that people and politics are different. People, i.e. the common men, is like anyone like us, less than 2% are outlier on either side, with a polar groups being extremely selfless and the other polar group being truly criminal, the intervening 3 standard deviations (SD) being normal people like us, helpful but apprehensive, focused on themselves and their families but with some benevolence etc.
When I say Chinese, Pakistanis, I definitely want to spare the common men, and implicate the ruling moiety. Agreed, polity defines politics but polity has little choice. An example being the recent US election, or Johnson’s Brexit win. People are limited with choices and options but it is unwise to deduce and generalize.
The unfortunate part is the destiny of the common man is in the hands of such pitiful leaders, and that defines our history, and as we all know, history is written by the winners.
Hope we avoid our blindspots.
https://www.ft.com/content/b8221860-8a09-11ea-a01c-a28a3e3fbd33
mymilieu.org 