Born to rule or born to rue

“In every society some men are born to rule, and some to rue.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson an American essayist, lecturer, and poet.

He who gives shape to ambition, wings to dreams, clarity to vision, power to arms, is a born ruler. Some men, sometimes women, are born to rule.

The stars may or may not foretell their existence; but the quality of the person, the grand philosophical speculation espoused, will push such persons to the fore, and they will burst upon the scene like a clap of thunder in the summer. Such men and women would be possessed of knowledge in its purest form, refined by scores of generations of knowledge-seekers; have mind control; mastery of the senses; and would never be blind to reason.

This of course is, if one were a born ruler. For those who come to rule through a quirk of fate, or who thrust themselves to the throne; it will not be an exaggeration to say that, such persons were invariably born to rue.

Lacking the wisdom of the born to rule, these pretenders to leadership and learning surround themselves with sycophants and deceivers; bury themselves in false beliefs and superstitions; and think all is well with everything around them as long as their cocoons of power is kept intact.

They realise not that, nothing even half as simple and beautiful as a butterfly emerges out of their cocoons.

They of course will strive for bigger things, but will forget something simple and basic - the people. They think that glittering cities, beautiful gardens, more ports, new dams, newer roads, all marked progress; but forget about the people living in gutters, in poverty. When they give lavish banquets, they forget that most of their citizens had very little to eat, or at best, ate rubbish.

Fairness

People love a ruler, not for the short-term popular things, a ruler does for them; but because one is a just ruler with a sense of fairness.

If, everything a ruler does: be it charity, pity, generosity, is born out of selfishness and greed for power; it means the ruler lives in fear - fear of his people, fear of his shadow; fear of losing power.

Hence, his show of pity, patronisation, charity, arrogance, pride, and indifference are all part of a defence mechanism to cover up this fear.

An unjust ruler will wilt away like a half-blossomed flower, and never enter the pages of legend and history. Instead, he would be, swept away like a feather in the wind. If, in all corners of a nation, people continue to battle for food, water, clean air, shelter, and dignity; it only means that that country is ruled unjustly.

A people cannot attain dignity, if the ruler is unjust. However, it is also true that it is difficult to be a just ruler when the entire system is based on discrimination and beguilement; prejudices and privileges; intolerance and favouritism; swindling, and racketeering.

As a result, it is not the righteous and straight jacketed nor the proud and rebellious, who inherit the world; but the men who do the bidding of the fanatics; the irrational, the superstitious, the greedy and the corrupt who want one like them as a ruler so that their ends could be met.

There may be glory living and dying like the proud and rebellious; there may be satisfaction in standing steadfast for some abstract ideas such as justice and morality; but such glories are unaffordable luxuries for men hungry for power, men with the greed to cling to power.

Such men seek to eke out a living through plunder of the nation they purport to rule. They are the men who ascend to power by, favour of fickle fate.

There is beauty beyond words in the impossible dreams that hides in the hearts of men.

They dream of a world of equals; a world of perpetual peace; a world without frauds and disasters.

No laws can erase such dreams; no taboos can fetter them; no holy books and preachers can wipe them clean; no ruler can steal them away.

Men may die, like the millions who have left before without a trace in this world; but their hopes for a just and fair rule will always remain.

For therein, in such dreams, lies the hope of humanity; hope for their future, hope of happiness and progress.

Men may die, but hopes remains to sprout as dreams.

If a ruler creates a system in which dreams had no chance and aspirations dangerous, except for those with the right connections, that rule is unjust.

Foundation

All unjust rulers think that their empire is built on a foundation of steel; but when shove comes to a push, they will realise that it had been built on nothing but straw.

That whomsoever they had trusted, in whom they had reposed faith, will betray them when the time is ripe for betrayal. The fools who expect mercy from the betrayers will be, cut down mercilessly.

That is natural justice, nature’s way: betrayal has been the bane and benefit of humanity from time immemorial.

From the annals of human history, it is evident that injustice has never lasted indefinitely; even if the vestige of the unjust, wish otherwise.

This said, it must also be said, that power has a tendency to corrupt even the most idealistic of them all. As it had done before, it will corrupt again. Ideals would become shattered fantasies; and would die and be buried like always had been. True wisdom would realise that idealism is but a tool of power; but how many wise, ascend the throne?

Hence, rulers will come, rulers will go; but the world goes on.

The wretched would, remain wretched; the poor, poor if not poorer.

New revolutions could happen; newer ideologies could flourish; new codes of ethics and morality replace the old; new prophets be born; new religions sprout; new rulers emerge; new discoveries made; but everything would remain the same.

The world would always be a world of un-equals. Inequality is the rule of the cosmos; whether it be amongst men or beasts, planets or stars, or between galaxies.

The only other fact is that, as the time comes for a ruler to go, he will wish he did better in all matters he did, that he did more for his people; but by then it is always too late.

Projected

The one who ascends in his place, will be projected as the paragon of virtue, the best amongst men; until power corrupts him.

In the final analysis and in the larger order of things, all rulers are but an insignificant dot; the only thing that would matter is how well cared for his people were under his rule; how happy they are.

If indeed they are truly cared for, and are happy; that ruler would be elevated to godhood; his bad deeds obliterated.

The world has not been, always ruled by the unjust; even if it is a world full of injustice.

There had been rulers of whom it is said: “never in time has a greater man lived on earth, and none ever will.”

I recall a chapter from the Indian epic Mahabharata in which it describes how and what a ruler should be: The protection of all living beings is the first and foremost responsibility of a ruler. Protection founded on dharma perpetuates the country.

A protected people prosper, and prospering they bless and endow the ruler. The essence of a ruler’s dharma is to secure the happiness, well-being, and prosperity of his subjects. In a ruler’s life, while destiny is significant, his deeds are even more decisive than destiny itself.

Karma comes before destiny and even alters it. Always, the ruler makes the age; not the age that makes the ruler.

A ruler's skills lies in following the six basic principles of good governance: self discipline; a grasp of his country and the needs of his people; considered, calibrated, and honest response to issues; clarity of vision; loyal and dependable subordinates; and finally, competent advice.

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