Slaughter of the intellectuals
Reading the flurry of nastiness concerning Professor Yunus and Fakhruddin Ahmed's wise words today (21st), I could not help thinking how much some people love putting someone on a pedestal - and then kicking the pedestal! Leadership is a great responsibility, in any field, and those leaders who do not behave with skill, honesty, dedication and grace deserve criticism.
However, it is vital to learn how to treat leaders (political, financial and cultural) in a democracy by learning how to respect them, even while we hold them accountable.
Some leaders deserve all the 'kicking' they get - that is, those who desire 'leadership' in the hope that status will bring wealth and 'respect' i.e. that cringing supplicants will come to them, seeking favours and offering bribes! But true leaders merit admiration, gratitude and respect because of their achievements although the 'kickers of pedestals' love to find out something negative about them so they can snigger about that person 'being no better than the rest of us' - as though that gives them an excuse not to respect any achievement - and to excuse their own lack of it.
A slightly different aspect of the same syndrome is called 'cutting down the tall poppy' i.e. feeling such resentment and jealousy for those of real talent, that you try to stop them flourishing. It is worth identifying and resisting both the kickers of pedestals and the cutters down of tall poppies as this is a kind of 'slaughter of the intellectuals,' is it not?
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