Of Politics, Nations and Choices

A nation, at times, is defined by its leaders. And at times, a nation’s leaders end up limiting its horizon. Leaders come in many sizes – not literally and figuratively – but in terms of their sizeable, cumulative ability to rule and govern a nation. Thus we see really minuscule national leaders, with no ounce of managerial skills but with good elves and imps to ascertain their authority and we also see people with an aptitude for skilful governance so large, that it alternatively awes and spellbinds people. 

Some rulers rule by force, palpably tangible and often demeaning to the nation’s citizens, while some do the enforcing far more subtly, like inserting a needle into a banana. There, however, is no actual deciphering meter where citizens can gauge and consequentially mark their national leaders. The whole deciphering and unearthing is like finding the proverbial pot of gold, under the rainbow. A hit or a miss – either the people strike value for their ballot or the chosen leaders just turn out to be volunteered incumbents, gnawing and grating at the peace of minds, till the next person can be customised for the job at hand. 

So how difficult is it to rule a nation? By the look of things happening around the globe, it seems pretty easy enough. Negligence, over-blown theatrics, rallies and debates, cat-calls and show-stopping of a different kind; there isn’t anything happening beyond these. Of course, in order to spike the adrenaline, a few rounds of guns and pistols, rifles and bazookas are more than welcome. 

Talks and associations, and committees and agencies, extrapolating and interpolating within each other, but not going beyond the required ex-officio bureaucracy levels; governing a nation is not more than emitting parrot cries – pardon the pun – and then, when the citizen parrots come closer, trapping them into a cage with no escape routes. In fact, the actual parrot catchers can even learn a thing or two on how to keep their winged prisoners in check. Instead of cutting the captives’ wings right at once, as they normally do, the parrot catchers can learn from national leaders to pluck at their prisoners’ wings as a form of torture, while all the time proclaiming safety and security to their so-called beloved captives. 

Threats and litigations, nothing is of import to leaders. This makes their job even easier. Yes, but if a threat occurs to their life, then the citizens have no choice but to bear the shenanigans of the leaders’ security personnel. An insult to a person’s character is treated as by-the-by, but when people express their freedom, it constitutes defamation. A perquisites’ galore, round-the-clock, the easiest job on the planet is that of a nation’s leader’s. 

Unemployed, employed, educated and not-so-educated, everyone’s welcome. Actual training from experts, makes choosing national leadership as the most viable and workable career position in any kind of economy. For there’s always options for growth, however regressive at times, they might be. The commonality can always go to hell and purgatory, but for a nation’s leadership elite, it’s always heaven and nirvana – on some post-dated, likely-to-bounce, edict.