Croods, Creeds, and Charismatic Leaders
Assalamu Alaikum dear reader friends..! The recent tremors in the society, here in Tamil Nadu, does leave us--the citizens of India, in a distressful blind-spot. When brothers and sisters of our society bleed to death, we sit here in front of our idiot boxes, tuning into various possible channels to find something new about those vengeful corporate hoaxes.It really is a heart-wrenching disaster, when you can't help but just be one among the silent-observers of this murderous mayhem.
We never know the origins or the undercurrents associated with this STERLITE CONSPIRACY that has been a harbinger of all this chaos, recently.. Yet, the consequent killings that had to yield more than ten innocent lives does leave an incurable scar, on our social as well as our cultural history. It is our cultural CREEDS or the belief systems, that's being challenged in this situation today. We, as the underestimated lot, the CROODS who need to refine our thought processes towards our creeds, should introspect solutions to face the jinx that has been cast upon our society..
To begin with, when encountering such mishaps, we obviously do play the "blame game", by pointing at our CHARISMATIC LEADERS as the spiteful ones to be condemned. But are we doing justice by doubting them? What are we doing as a nation? Where is the charisma of our Unity that built our nation's independence? Are we truly independent? If so, where is the charisma gone? In whom do we find hope? What do we need to do to find a hopeful future?
HOW? HOW? HOW are we going to face the sting and the stigma? Well, as I always insist, IT'S ALL IN THE BOOKS!
Recently I came across this wonderful memorandum of sorts.. CHARISMA: THE GIFT OF GRACE, AND HOW IT HAS BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM US by Philip Rieff. The book deals with Max Weber's canon of "Charismatic Leadership" which can be simply explained as 'we obey authority because we ought to; we obey power because we are afraid not to', and that's it! Rieff deals with mandatory distinctions that we need to acknowledge today between inspiration and manipulation, heroism and celebrity, prophecy and propaganda, which remains largely invisible to the society. He finds Weber as directly responsible for this inarticulacy. It was Weber who de-theologized the concept of "charisma", from Saint Paul's "charisma" which magnifies the authority of God. Weber in turn projected "charisma" as a synonym of Individualism. He generalized the term by applying it to men who were great leaders. He proposed that 'the charismatic leader bows only to the compulsions within himself and claims followers strictly on the basis of this personal authority'. But Rieff argues that Weber's production of "charisma" is obscure as it does not entertain the limits of the creed.
Instead, Rieff calls for sustaining a "creedal culture" which brings out the charismatic in a culture which is clear about what must not be done! He affirms that true charismatics (and every creedal culture must be on guard against the power-hungry false ones) do not speak on their own behalf, but in the name of limits that are above them and before them. He adds that Jesus also said that he came "to fulfill the law and the prophets". He concludes that "There is no charisma without creed".
Hence it is our job to separate the worst from the best. We need to be more judgmental about the decisions we take as a whole, to bring about a change. We are liberated only when we renew our creedal culture, to set free the crood within.
And this is what George Saunders observes in his latest book LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, when alluding to Lincoln, he merges the souls of Bardo with the soul of Lincoln, so as to derive a creedal re-emergence in envisioning the future. The soul of Roger Bevins echoes from within Lincoln:
"He must (we must, we felt) do all we could, in light of the many soldiers lying dead and wounded, in open fields, all across the land, weeds violating their torsos, eyeballs pecked out or dissolving, lips hideously retracted, rain-soaked/ blood-soaked/ snow-crusted letters scattered about them...
Ruinmore, ruinmore, we felt, must endeavor not to ruinmore.
Our grief must be defeated; it must not become our master, and make us ineffective, and put us even deeper into the ditch."
Hence the charisma that we need to derive, lies within everyone of us, as discussed above by our visionaries. We have to grow more than the crood that we actually are. We choose our leaders but fail to emancipate the duty of the charismatic that lies within us. We need to forbear, analyse, and redesign a future, healthy enough, for our nation by merging our creedal culture with the visions of our leaders, so as to make a charismatic nation.. a charismatic future!
Last, but not the least, I would like to end my post with a more endearing quote from Lincoln in the Bardo, to throw light upon World peace and integrity:
"Whatever way one took in this world, one must try to remember that all were suffering (none content; all wronged, neglected, overlooked, misunderstood), and therefore one must do what one could do to lighten the load of those with whom one came into contact".
Signing off,
With love,
Rasheeda Madani
Image Courtesy: Google
We never know the origins or the undercurrents associated with this STERLITE CONSPIRACY that has been a harbinger of all this chaos, recently.. Yet, the consequent killings that had to yield more than ten innocent lives does leave an incurable scar, on our social as well as our cultural history. It is our cultural CREEDS or the belief systems, that's being challenged in this situation today. We, as the underestimated lot, the CROODS who need to refine our thought processes towards our creeds, should introspect solutions to face the jinx that has been cast upon our society..
To begin with, when encountering such mishaps, we obviously do play the "blame game", by pointing at our CHARISMATIC LEADERS as the spiteful ones to be condemned. But are we doing justice by doubting them? What are we doing as a nation? Where is the charisma of our Unity that built our nation's independence? Are we truly independent? If so, where is the charisma gone? In whom do we find hope? What do we need to do to find a hopeful future?
HOW? HOW? HOW are we going to face the sting and the stigma? Well, as I always insist, IT'S ALL IN THE BOOKS!
Recently I came across this wonderful memorandum of sorts.. CHARISMA: THE GIFT OF GRACE, AND HOW IT HAS BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM US by Philip Rieff. The book deals with Max Weber's canon of "Charismatic Leadership" which can be simply explained as 'we obey authority because we ought to; we obey power because we are afraid not to', and that's it! Rieff deals with mandatory distinctions that we need to acknowledge today between inspiration and manipulation, heroism and celebrity, prophecy and propaganda, which remains largely invisible to the society. He finds Weber as directly responsible for this inarticulacy. It was Weber who de-theologized the concept of "charisma", from Saint Paul's "charisma" which magnifies the authority of God. Weber in turn projected "charisma" as a synonym of Individualism. He generalized the term by applying it to men who were great leaders. He proposed that 'the charismatic leader bows only to the compulsions within himself and claims followers strictly on the basis of this personal authority'. But Rieff argues that Weber's production of "charisma" is obscure as it does not entertain the limits of the creed.Instead, Rieff calls for sustaining a "creedal culture" which brings out the charismatic in a culture which is clear about what must not be done! He affirms that true charismatics (and every creedal culture must be on guard against the power-hungry false ones) do not speak on their own behalf, but in the name of limits that are above them and before them. He adds that Jesus also said that he came "to fulfill the law and the prophets". He concludes that "There is no charisma without creed".
Hence it is our job to separate the worst from the best. We need to be more judgmental about the decisions we take as a whole, to bring about a change. We are liberated only when we renew our creedal culture, to set free the crood within.
And this is what George Saunders observes in his latest book LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, when alluding to Lincoln, he merges the souls of Bardo with the soul of Lincoln, so as to derive a creedal re-emergence in envisioning the future. The soul of Roger Bevins echoes from within Lincoln:"He must (we must, we felt) do all we could, in light of the many soldiers lying dead and wounded, in open fields, all across the land, weeds violating their torsos, eyeballs pecked out or dissolving, lips hideously retracted, rain-soaked/ blood-soaked/ snow-crusted letters scattered about them...
Ruinmore, ruinmore, we felt, must endeavor not to ruinmore.
Our grief must be defeated; it must not become our master, and make us ineffective, and put us even deeper into the ditch."
Hence the charisma that we need to derive, lies within everyone of us, as discussed above by our visionaries. We have to grow more than the crood that we actually are. We choose our leaders but fail to emancipate the duty of the charismatic that lies within us. We need to forbear, analyse, and redesign a future, healthy enough, for our nation by merging our creedal culture with the visions of our leaders, so as to make a charismatic nation.. a charismatic future!
Last, but not the least, I would like to end my post with a more endearing quote from Lincoln in the Bardo, to throw light upon World peace and integrity:
"Whatever way one took in this world, one must try to remember that all were suffering (none content; all wronged, neglected, overlooked, misunderstood), and therefore one must do what one could do to lighten the load of those with whom one came into contact".
Signing off,
With love,
Rasheeda Madani
Image Courtesy: Google
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