The Honour of Humiliation

In our blog Senators are good men we already learned that people seek recognition in the group they belong to. Members of a group tend to behave like selfish sheep. The herd itself behaves like a bad beast. The Russian president became more popular in his country by starting a war. Western leaders have started using warlike language to become more popular as well. Nowadays, at both sides, truth is at risk. Fortunately, in the history of time, there have always been leaders who have been able to stand out. They were not leaders by worldly power; they were leaders by moral authority.

Emile Zola went to prison after having written his famous letter ‘J’accuse’ to the people of France. He did this because he was convinced that truth and justice were more important than power. Other examples include Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Dag Hammarskjöld. These people retaliated evil with good. They accepted all the consequences of their unwavering integrity. Thereby they exposed the lack of integrity of the political parties they had to deal with; they also exposed themselves to the aggression of these parties but never changed their opinion to comply with the powerful. They preferred the honour of humiliation over the disgrace of power.

What silent people could do, is support such leaders. We need to recognise Confucius inequality. It will inspire new candidate leaders. After all, nowadays the fools stand out too easily.

I refer to my blogs Ode to Audacity (English) and Leiderschap en Liefde (Dutch).

Picture: Henry de Groux, Zola aux outrages, File:Zolasortie.jpg - Wikimedia Commons