Editorial October 2009
No Nation in the history of planet Earth has ever fallen as a result of the acts of brave men with good intentions.
It is rather the indifference and the lack of action of complacent majorities that has contributed to the fall of many an Empire. Ours is a rapidly changing nation that needs more good men and women at the helm to make our passage safe through the perilous rapids of a tempestuous future.
Speaking for the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have had to flee from nations at war, this is cold, hard fact. And speaking for those of us who settled in London, Ontario, we are most fortunate to be far from the far-fetched “realities” for which many Latin American nations have substituted what was once a peaceful and mostly bucolic coexistence.
In this first new edition we want to reflect on the possible connections between political power and the corrupt manipulation of reality as a way to explain what is happening in many countries to the south of our continent.
It is first of all necessary to define what “power” means for the purpose of these thoughts. The impulse toward dominance is a genetic condition that is not exclusive to the human race but is found as a driving force throughout the entire history of evolution of all live beings.
This inherent urge or instinctive drive leads to the exercise of power over others. This, in turn, leads to the figure of the dominant person, which in the human breed became an essential icon of its psyche.
The important thing to consider is that this natural motivation is necessary so that societies can produce people capable of guiding them down the paths of positive development and who can influence others in search of a higher standard for the benefit of the community.
However, this social and genetic drive can be distorted to such an extent that it becomes destructive and turns into a vehicle capable of producing serious social and psychological conflict.
The fact is that in order to satisfy the instinct for domination, the need arises to control persons or groups, and as this influence over a society grows it becomes more pleasing. Control is expressed in ways that are not very evident as they conform to more subtle social and cultural “standards”. Activities like political rallies, intellectual get-togethers and religious festivities are ways to express this hunger for control. If the urgency of a certain individual to influence others and enhance his sense of power is very acute, then several of these manifestations are combined in the effort to master the sense of domination.
In certain cases it all corresponds to pathological instances where personal satisfaction is the main goal of the dominant individual. The fixation in the search of praise from others is so great that these people are incapable of listening to anything other than words of tribute and admiration and will never admit anything that may suggest criticism of any kind.
In hand with these manifestations there is yet another typically human expression of the genetic drive towards domination that expresses itself as a magical belief in the omnipotent power of the leader.
For such leaders, anything becomes justifiable, even if it means having to manipulate “reality”. It is at this point that the personal desires of a character like Mussolini, or Hitler or many modern-day American, African and Middle Eastern “leaders” turn into blinding fixations that leave out all consideration for the welfare of families, institutions or societies. It is then that Intelligence is placed at the service of the pathological purposes of an individual who sees her/himself as the supreme and sole owner of essential truths. Suffice it to remember the many times in history -both past and recent- when the dormant, lethargic state of abandon of their societies have allowed it, many leaders and rulers around the world have turned into semi-gods at the service of flawed causes.
The pathological expressions of this drive towards absolute dominance will of course depend on the possibilities that society gives an individual to attain a status through the imposition of his flawed character.
This individual psychological process turns catastrophic when it mixes with a potentially harmful antisocial behavior, because then the leader will try to manipulate all the conditions he/she needs for the satisfaction of his/her underlying passions without much consideration for the moral or ethical implications of her/his actions. For these people, the ends will justify all means used for the achievement of their goals.
These negative processes can be overcome through democratic practices. In other words, all good citizens must participate in the process to make it work.
It is in consequence not only convenient but of the utmost importance that we Canadians be prepared to recognize and discourage the pathological use of power by our elected and/or potential leaders because tolerance of these deviations of purpose has catastrophic effects on the stability and legitimacy of the Nation’s system of empowerment..