Power is the big thing. People seem to be willing to do almost anything to reach it. However, on the long ladder reaching to the top, something important is about to be lost: it’s called ‘sense of reality’.

It is 8:00 am on a Sunday morning in the quiet coastal town of Pointe Noire, Congo. Bypassed by the mainstream of our modern world, this sleepy city is waking up to another uneventful day. But today, something special is on the agenda. Overall-clad workers are on the street and fill the countless potholes on the main boulevard with tar. Others are standing on ladders, and scratch off lichen from moldy facades belonging to long-gone colonial times. Even at the main square, workers are painting the city hall with great urgency.

Even more unusual, there are these well-dressed skinny young men standing around, sporting dark sunglasses, and talking seemingly without interruption on their Motorola hand-phones. There is tension in the air.

The next morning, a rumor is spreading through town: the president is about to arrive. The secret service agents are looking nervous. The boulevard’s cross-roads are blocked, and toothless beggars are chased away from their favorite spots deep into the maze of filthy lanes that characterize the impoverished city.

Countless people gather along the boulevard sporting their best dresses. White smiling teeth blink in the morning sun. At 11 am the presidential motorcade appears from the distance, and solemnly proceeds along the boulevard. The dictator smiles, waves to the crowd, his eyes traveling along the spotless town. ‘Isn’t this a wonderful place,’ he might think. ‘The people down here do really like me.’

Indeed, this is how it may look, superficially. Seen from the presidential cocoon of luxury and pretty pictures, it’s a vision of joy. The sad reality of poverty, pain and Aids will never reach him. As he relaxes in the city’s only luxury suite, possibly in charming company, the crippled and rag-tag beggars return to the main street.

You might say this is a typical African story. But wait, not quite! Since the beginning of time, worldly power is followed by illusion as light is followed by shadow. Influential persons surround themselves with a circle of servile administrators, whose main function is to filter the bad news. They are the bottom feeders in the aquarium of power. Nothing should ever disturb the mood of an emperor, sultan, or president. One’s carrier in the center of power might depend on good news only.

The result being, that many leaders of government or large corporations may become progressively shielded from reality. Let me give a few historical and recent examples.

In winter 1989, the Pact of Warsaw collapsed. The Soviet Union wasn’t willing any longer to suppress human rights in Eastern Europe. Revolution swept through the land, and puzzled leadership dominos fell one after the other. The last to fall was Romania’s dictator Ceausescu. He simply didn’t seem to get the news. Whilst protesting Romanians were mowed down in the streets with machine guns, the sublime dictator celebrated the country’s glory in a six-hour-speech in front of a crowd of some 5000 Communist cheerleaders. One week later, Ceausescu was executed, and the event was broadcasted in direct on the previously government-controlled TV.

Loosing the common sense of reality may be the rule rather the exception in the quest of power.

Julius Cesar was murdered by his beloved ‘son’ Brutus. Mexico’s emperor Maximilian thought, after several lost battles, that the Mexican people loved him. He got shot a while later.

Napoleon lost 495000 soldiers in the Russian winter, because he thought Russia would surrender when Moscow was taken. Adolph Hitler probably was convinced he could win WW II.

Cuba's Fidel Castro probably believes his 'social revolution' lies in the heart of human mainstream development- more objectively it's one of history's murky appendices.

How could G.W.Bush ever believe Iraq posed a nuclear threat? That’s what Condi told him, and G.W trusts Condi and Dick. G.W.B. doesn’t read newspaper, because he trusts Condi.

Bill Gates probably thinks he is spearheading a thriving innovative company, though almost everybody else sees Microsoft as the ugly dinosaur of outdated informatics and monopolism.

No, we cannot give an absolution to the mighty ones, nor justify corruption, the abuse of power or blatant stupidity. But whilst judging, one might try to see the mighty leaders as victims of power, too.

Accordingly, a balanced measure of understanding and even compassion might look appropriate.

© 2005 by Franz L Kessler