(For a friend) Leaders in perpetual crucifixion

Someone told me a few days ago, "Well, it's easy for you to criticize, throw your suggestions in heaps at me, give me all sorts of innovative ideas but are you actually capable of stepping into my shoes to practically implement all those 'great stuffs' you're telling me?" 

So, this person's not really open to suggestions was my immediate reaction...but those words made me think again: will i really and i mean really be able to bring all these wonderful ideas to fruition if i were in that position? 

I realised that i was actually dumping all those 'i wish i could have done’ stuffs on the other person not even lifting a finger myself. I read somewhere that ideas are dime a dozen, it's the implementation that's worth its weight in gold. It's a piece of cake to belt out advices and suggestions like a volley of arrows in those epic movies at someone in-charge. For example, the government: the government's lazy, the government's eating up all the money, the government cannot even maintain peace and order, no one's doing their job blah and blah. Probably some action and bodily movement is needed on my part to set things in motion for change to happen besides the bad-mouthing.

Leaders sometimes fail or don't live up to expectations and that's why people grumble. It is inevitable for anyone at a leadership position to be criticized most times, dissected from all angles and usually a favourite topic of gossip and humour.

I remember the funny monkey organization joke that use to circulate as one of those many e-mail forwards at work:

An organization is like a tree full of monkeys,

all on different limbs at different levels. 

Some monkeys are climbing up, some down.

The monkeys on top look down and see a tree full of smiling faces.

The monkeys on the bottom look up and see nothing but assholes.

(yet all smiling monkeys still want to reach the top to display their assholes?)

Pulleezz! Where's your sense of humour?

Sure, humour could be the fourth basic need, a great stress-buster we can't live without. Humour is also an effective weapon for social criticism and a political tool to influence or manage minds through mass media, sometimes a weapon of mass destruction. The Ig Nobel Prizes rightly puts "first make people laugh, and then make them think". 

Not everyone has to hold the PM’s post to be called a leader. Many people lead others in some way or the other, maybe even one person or hundreds, in their own communities, schools, families or friends circles but a true leader always stands for the truth -- always  try to do the right thing no matter what the circumstance even if there's just two or three to support.

Many leaders have died fighting for others. Christians believe that Jesus was crucified for no fault of his. Crucifixion it seems is not an instant-death job, it’s a slow, painful process beating the hell out a person first (imagine Mel Gibson’s POTC) before nailing him alive on the cross. Jesus’ death is famous the world over but he was not the only victim of crucifixion -- it was a common method of execution for offenders in those days in many places.

Many leaders in history have been loved, worshipped, respected but also hated, ridiculed and killed for trying to stand for the truth. Socrates was made to drink hemlock, Gandhi was assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr. too was assassinated. These are famous deaths but there are thousand other unsung heroes and leaders who have died fighting for justice and good of others.

In any democratic set-up, leaders are elected by the people therefore, it must be the responsibility of the electors to consciously and constantly contribute constructive actions and thoughts more than just big ideas. It is the duty of the people to actively support the leader they've elected if they want their deep longings recognised and fulfilled.

The job description of a leader will always include managing conflicts and criticism. Anyhow, life becomes meaningless without conflicts whether you're a leader or not. 

Rabble-rousers are blinded by misinformation and cannot see the root-cause and finer details of why, when, where, who, what or how of the issue at hand nor do they make any attempt to understand the bigger picture of what’s at stake. They sometimes forget that leaders are not supernatural but are humans just like them but with a slightly higher degree of responsibility.

There will always be those looking up smiling but sitting on a pile of rotting ideas that will most probably never see the light of day. 

Even when times are tumultuous, true leaders have the quality to believe that hatred-mongers can change too; they do not pay back rabble-rousing with more rabble-rousing. That must be the real strength and nature of being human.

Diamonds need a lot of cuts everywhere to truly manifest their brilliance....so there you are!

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