Dear Friends,
It seems to me, a leader leads by example, while a despot leads by violence and fear. This is why, when leaders lead by example instead of ruling by force, there is prosperity, peace, low crime and the children are safe. In those places where rulers live the most hideous lives imaginable, they must use force, violence and coercion, else the people will follow them into utter corruption, while society and the economy collapse into total ruin. This cannot be allowed… since it would infringe on the elite’s good time. So the elite must control the hoi polloi by fear, regulations and violence. As a result, you can tell when you are ruled by a despot, instead of someone who leads by example… by whether or not they lead by example, or drowned you in regulations and rapidly escalate any defiance to violence.
Probably the greatest example of a man who led by example was Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He lived a sin free life, turned down temporal opulence and power, while acceding to being nailed to a cross and dying ignobly rather than use the power granted to him, to subdue those who accosted him. A man with ultimate power, showing us how to live, rather than forcing us to live the way he wants. On a more mundane level… John Adams, Confucius, Lincoln, Truman, Gandhi and Bonhoeffer were men who led by example. They lived as they proposed others do. The backlash from those who resisted living virtuous lives, often led to war, revolutions and societal convulsions, but the suffering was the result of those, who would force others to live a life they would never tolerate for themselves.
Human history is a story of despots who ruled by force, violence and fear. This is the single reason humanity has been stuck for millennia in poverty, wars and famine. Stalin, Mao, Kim, Castro, Che Guevara, Lenin, Hitler, Tamerlane, etc… are all examples of people who lived as they pleased, while forcing others to live as slaves. A thing they would never tolerate for themselves. Of all this crowd, only Hitler lived as an example of his ideal, an evil example to be sure, but an example nonetheless. The rest were hypocrites of the highest order. Old fat Mao didn’t miss many meals… even as he starved 45 million to death. Tamerlane delighted in the slaughter of millions of Hindus, even as the slightest insult to him, was punished by death. Che loved shooting people as they begged for mercy. Great guys.
Today we see human history playing out again in Hong Kong. The people are demanding that the despotic imperial Chinese government simply follow the agreement it signed. Which, to a despot, is unacceptable! The people of Hong Kong, human beings in every sense, are demanding the Imperial Chinese government stop scooping people up off the streets arbitrarily, and deporting them to the mainland, where they are never seen again. Can you imagine a despot like Xi to accept such a situation reversed? Of course not! He is a progressive, hypocrisy is a sacrament to them, so to force the situation, he is readying columns of tanks and troops, to do a Tienanmen Square massacre, to make examples of those who demand they be treated as human beings… so no one will have the guts to do it again.
Confucius was asked by the Duke of Lu, how to get the people to stop lusting after money, other men’s wives, etc… Confucius answered, “You could lead by example and stop doing those things yourself.” Confucius and his disciples had to flee Lu State. By his actions it appears we can count Xi in the second group, despots who use the Golden Rule as toilet paper. Hypocrites who live in luxury as their people groan under the jack boot of their oppression. In the case of the People’s Imperial China, it is okay, because the single party that rules it is Marxist. The goal of all progressives. So don’t expect there to be much complaining from the progressives. They are on the side of the despot. Looks like China will reap the rewards of having a hypocritical despot in charge, all hail Xi, the new duke of Lu!
Sincerely,
John Pepin
