Victims as Leaders

“Of all calamities, the most powerful is to consider yourself a victim” – Etsko Schuitema

Victims are people who believe that they have been wronged. They feel that they are entitled to think and act in ways that can avenge them because they have been wronged. The victim refuses to look at his own flaws. A victim’s focus is on what others are doing to him and therefore he is weaker by the proportion he focuses on another’s area of influence.

Conversely, masters are those people who take responsibility of the situation they are in. Their attention does not rest with what has been done to them (whether it is unfair or not is besides the point) but it rests on what they should be contributing to the situation. They are definers whereas victims are whiners!

If you understand this, you’ll be fascinated to follow the current affairs diatribe today, as you will find much of the world leadership thriving on a sense of victimhood. And that is perhaps what is leading to conflicts getting worse everywhere.

A world where the majority feels wronged and wants revenge is certainly a dangerous place. It’s certainly dangerous when you have political leaders fanning the egos of their people by making them believe that they have been wronged and need to settle their scores.

Because a true leader enables masters not victims. Consider what Hitler did. He thrived on fanning a sense of racial superiority among the Germans of the Nazi era. He made Jews into evil beings who deserved to be expunged from the face of the earth and got his followers to commit horrendous acts against innocent people. Ironically the same psyche is playing the Israeli aggression today and the same psyche worked in Bosnia under Slobodan Milosevic. This sense of victimhood rides like a club in the hands of those with power.

Now consider the leadership of Nelson Mandela. He had a wonderful opportunity to rise as a discriminating leader having lived under the atrocities of the apartheid. Yet he forgave what was done to him and his people and in turn united a varied mass of people under him. Sometime ago, our blog carried the story of Almir Narayamoga; a tribal chieftain from the Amazon jungles of Brazil, who has managed to save his territory from illegal developers by uniting his tribe and using technology to raise awareness. That’s another example of a leader who has fought for his rights with courage and not used his situation as a license to arouse hatred.

A true leader always enables mastery in his followers. He does not turn them into paranoid, arrogant, and discriminating nations and tribes who see nothing but their own self interest.

As individuals, we need to be wary of people of influence who try to make us believe that we have been wronged and need to settle scores. Because with this mindset you will automatically encounter an opponent who wishes to settle his scores as well. The trouble with this victimised tirade is that it sounds so good to the ego. So you go and kill the Taliban with drones not realizing that you are also killing innocent civilians along with them and breeding a bigger enemy in people who previously wished you no ill.

It’s a reality that our world is round. So if you throw out a missile it is bound to come back at you sooner or later with as much, if not bigger, force than you threw it with!