Is resonating epithets to the ideals of equality, fairness and justice a somersault cloud of seemingly heroic dimensions a true perspective founded on a genuine base to soar in the air of injustice and transcend and traverse the dark expanse of parochialism, fundamentalist and bigotistical interests, sectarianism, greed and corruption, social injustice, inequality, and class consciousness? Is the glowing tribute paid to communalism, socialism and egalitarian principles and of fairness in the society a clarion call from the depths of the souls of the mutterers a genuine motivation based on their desire to seek for the betterment of the society or just a means to an end? Traditionally speaking. Is the rallying call for the common good of the society a realistic vein in which a true blood of patriotism flows, a pillar with a conscience to serve and safeguard the interests of the people or just deceitful words cloaked in rhetoric of ambiguity to wrestle and pick in broad day light the power of the people which lays in the streets of lawlessness gasping for breath. Is the overused words of equality and fairness and economic progress a cabalistic word invoked from the lowermost echelons of political chicanery to mould and fashion just a hero of well meaning intentions to salvage the masses or to create monsters out of monsters, vicious dictators, vain leaders whose corrupt souls draw sustenance by hankering after the very ideals that binds the society together and destroying it?
When fierce idealism and its inseparable handmaid revolutionary zeal in a moment of frenzy and sudden illumination and awareness is able to identify, capitalize, and use as a tool and a base the humble efforts of the humble folks - vociferous in outlook - shrill like a clarion, restless and fearless until it has upset and jostled a corrupt and unjust system or even reduced to rubble edifices of oppression and suppression and if it fails to turn things around, even its unsettling effects are felt every where and its noble pursuit reenacted elsewhere, always serving as an inspiration and a cairn for those who cannot tolerate or condone injustice and would rather speak out bold and clear.
In its early manifestation, it seizes a vociferous person from the crowd and prepares him for a mission comparable or synonymous to that of a messianic one. He becomes fierce and bold all of a sudden, endowed with a rare intellect which churns out wise and decisive aphorisms which expresses the common aims and ambitions of the common people. Such a person becomes filled with deep philosophical insight into the social and political vagaries that had been bent and twisted to satisfy the egotistical cravings of the selfish few. By an uncommon faith or frenzy the prospective hero comes in the nick of time and speaks in the language of the masses. He is able to capture in a moving and sympathetic vein the woes and tribulations of the people. He encapsulates their yearnings and aspirations. A new lease of life is given to their suppressed voices. The masses will discover a personality who is poised to represent them, an unselfish plain looking man, selfless personality who epitomizes their despair transformed to blithe hope. They see in him visionary tendencies and peculiar familiarity with him which shows and portrays in unequivocal terms a person who is their own flesh and blood, a person with a humble beginnings, a rising star who they can identify with it. A wonderful personality who exhibits all the parralles and leitimotives of the epic hero. He gains mythical status and he is seen and regarded as a son of the gods sent to deliverer the masses from the pangs and terrors of monsters who prey on the flesh of the people. He leaves amongst them and is privy to their privations and the filth and squalor they have been entangled in. A hero who understands their situation more than any one else. The hero embarked on a messianic mission all by himself utilizes the basic tools of the people and hits hard on their vulnerable spots frequently. He weeps and mourns with the crowd and wastes no time to point out the perpetrators and orchestrators of their suffering. He will continue to paint a bleak picture of the suppressors. He will augment their atrocities and narcissistic apathy, indifference and flaunting self forgetfulness. The failings and weakness of those wielding the mantle of power are exaggerated and demonized by the hero. A catalogue of their treacherous betrayal and hankering after the material fripperies of power and grandeur but not the welfare of the people is presented to the eager masses in clenched teeth and a call for justice is insinuated. The masses are unconsciously incited to rise up against their oppressors so that the power they invested in their leaders which was much misused and abused to the disadvantage of them could be taken back and given to .i.e. he the new blameless man of justice who is at the forefront of the battle to bring sanity to the system which has been soiled with corruption, abuse of power, mismanagement imbued with overriding ego for personal aggrandizement to the detriment of the masses whose voices are not heard in the political arena and the one that will cry out from the depths of despair drowned in the pandemonium of vicious arguments based on no cogent philosophy and meant to defend the indefensible.
A new era dawns or seems to hang in the precarious horizon. The atmosphere we are made to understand is rife for a radical change of the society. In other words, revolution is in the air and resonating epithets given to the efforts of the people. Their very voices are deified. It becomes the voice of the lord. And the words they utter must go a long way to wreak wonders, move entrenched mountains of deceit and corruption into the sea and institute equity and fairness in the system.
The masses are enamored when they are depicted as gods in fetters. They seethe with anger when they come to the realization that the power was theirs and they consciously gave it out to be used to serve them and they have every right to take it back and even punish those who were given the power and could not manage it to the benefit of the society. All things being equal, the masses are made to understand that the stage is set for them to take the reigns of power from the selfish few.
At that critical and seething period, the real intentions of the hero do not come to light. His genuine motive as to why he is vociferous and unrestranedly radical in calling forth a rapid re arrangement of the social system and invoking retributive punishment to those who held the reigns of power is as obscure as it is opaque and unknowable. Because those who were entrusted to safeguard the interest of the people have abused it, their image automatically assumes the timmings of demons who were doing a dance macabre in the forest of the night, and fed on the flesh of the innocent people, their constant pleas and ululating anquish went unheeded. Their viciousness and demented self-satisfying arrogant aloofness and alienation from the people they were supposed to serve becomes a factor that seals their doom and brightens the chances of the supplanting hero.
In the blindness of the masses, they fail to recognise the fundamental issues that defines and informs human actions and judgements. They fail to recognise that they ousted a fallible human from their midst but did not invoke a devine entity but another man from their midst with all his failings and frailties. They fail to face a bitter reality that certain positions change the very nature and thinking of men. And the unrecognisable irony is that they are engaged in a sphinx like riddle as they clamour for a change which enjoins them to appoint a different person to a position that will automatically make his ideas,supreior to everyone, wielding immence power. And the very heart wrenching issues that made them cry out finally will no longer be heart wrenching to the hero again as he is given a special attention and his jugement alone becomes the accepted one possessing virtue and validity. The position blinds the eyes of the hero and he is not burdened as before to really think like how the disadvantaged lots are burdened.
But in as much as the people are seperated from the hero, its becomes a golden opportunity for him to show his heroism, turn his iniatial exhuberance into enleavening one and his ideals into visionary and impacting one. He is given the opportunity to demonstrate the spirit of fairness and justice that orchestrated his rise and to exhibit the elements of “Massism” by the masses. He is hailed as a true leader if he fulfils the will of the people and leaves a lasting legacy. Such heroes are rare.
He becomes a repulsive and the most hated personality with all the vestiges of evil attarched to him if he is found to be a contrary element the masses yearned for. He is quickly seen as a dreadful pestilence who stands in the way of the ideals that defines the aspirations of the people. He is branded a dictator of mephistophelian proportions, a demagogue saucy and overbold. He becomes a gale of gall that blows over their freedom and quickly they give horns and tales to such an unfortunate anti heroes and social antagonists. They become monsters and the people once again in mythological frenzy generates another hero to rise up and go and battle the fierce and terrible monster and to overcome, defeat it, destroy it completely.
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