[...] Leadership literature has an unverified story that
explains the seamy side of leadership of mass movements. During the days of the
French revolution, so goes the story, a newspaperman was having a tête-à-tête
with a leader of the revolution in a Paris café. As they were sipping coffee
and chatting, a wildly howling mob shouting slogans stomped by. The
newspaperman wondered what the procession was about. On hearing this, the ‘leader’
shouted, ‘Oh my God, I am supposed to lead the procession’ and ran out. At
times, when mass movements acquire a momentum of their own, ‘revolutionary’ leaders
might have to follow the mobs while pretending they were leading. It is a fact of life of leading mass
movements.
On the other hand, the intellectuals of a society are not
weathercocks but its leading lights. They do not (and should not) sometimes
follow pretending always to lead. They should possess the moral fibre and
intellectual integrity to pursue ideals even if they are unpopular. The words ‘honesty’
and ‘integrity’ are interchangeable but are paired to amplify the meaning, in a
figure of speech known as synonymia. The word ‘integrity’ is derived from the mathematical
term ‘integer’, meaning a whole number, undivided or complete. When someone is
said to be honest or has integrity, there can be no ‘partial honesty’ or ‘fractional
integrity’. He either is honest or has integrity, or not. Lamentably many of our public intellectuals fail in
this test. If a society cannot provide the protection needed for free
expression of ideas, it is the public intellectuals who should hold themselves
responsible for their failure to create the ambience for free flow of ideas. If
the public intellectuals swing with political winds they cannot expect the
society to conform to abstract ideals. The issue of freedom of expression may
be cited as an example. Is it absolute or are there limits to it? If the public
intellectuals champion absolute freedom on one occasion, but argue alibis for
scuttling it on another for political reasons, their vacillation cannot advance
the cause of freedom of expression. It keeps the society splintered by
competitive populism. [...]
Excerpted from ‘INTRODUCTION’: ‘TWISTING FACTS TO SUIT THEORIES’ & OTHER SELECTIONS FROM VOXINDICA. p. 20-21.
See the post dated December 10, 2016 below to view the book's CONTENTS.
Excerpted from ‘INTRODUCTION’: ‘TWISTING FACTS TO SUIT THEORIES’ & OTHER SELECTIONS FROM VOXINDICA. p. 20-21.
See the post dated December 10, 2016 below to view the book's CONTENTS.
