If you look at our history as a species, we can see many Big men (yeah- they are almost always men), who had a huge following. Millions venerated them and fell at their feet.
Why? They could transform society- they said. They could bring in Utopia- people believed.
Most of them were BIG men, orators who could move crowds to tears, and had an assortment of ideological tools that could bring in Paradise. These tools were mental visions. Dreams; lofty and alluring.
We can name a few- Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pott, pope John the 12th….List extends.
Hitler and Mussolini, very simply and efficiently, killed 7 to 8 million of their own people. The war they caused, caused millions more to lose their life.
Pol pott, with great vigour and ardour, butchered a third of the population of his country, sometimes holding young children by their feet and smashing their skulls against a tree, to save bullets.
Mao and Stalin were great planners. They planned and built their vision. Of course- It is inevitable that a few wretched humans would have to go- forty to fifty million each. This was over a few decades. How else will one govern Utopia? Dont blame them.
Before that, Christian and Muslim Gods battled out and decimated thousands every year for centuries. Sects with slight differences in opinion fought with ferocity to defend their world vision. Just to give an example, on one St. Bartholomew’s day in Europe during the reformation, Catholics murdered 25000 Protestants. In a single day. Hearing this, the then Pope was so ecstatic, that he ordered full state celebrations lasting a week. Our kingdom- mental vision of paradise- is coming!
Out of Arabia, a similar horde broke loose, the echoes of it reverberating down the centuries, and casting a ghastly shadow in Syria, by the name of ISIS.
There were some common themes:
- I- I the big guy- has the bloody formula.
- Using this, I will set everything right.
- You don’t need to know or question the full plan.
- I have everything under control
- But ‘we’ have to stand together.
- “They’ will try to screw it up for ‘us’
- ‘They’ could be among us. Ask questions, and you are ‘them’
- Come on, let us set everything right.
Bullcrap. If someone tells me I can solve all complex problems with a simple formula, I WOULD RUN. FOR MY LIFE.
So should anyone. Run! (Jimmy Mathew)
