Review of ‘Charisma, Power and the Life of Autocrats’ by Rajiv Dogra
KEY POINTS
- Book: Autocrats: Charisma, Power, and Their Lives
- Author: Rajiv Dogra
- Publisher: Rupa Publications
- Pages: 352
- Price: Rs 795
This is a meticulously researched and compelling account of a complex and much misunderstood topic. Who are autocrats? Do they have different “DNA”? Are they megalomaniacs due to childhood trauma or deep-seated inferiority complexes or are they simply sadists who deserve to rot in hell?
It is also a terrifying analysis of the nature of power, of the border between sanity and madness and of the dialectical relationship between charisma and leadership, whether benevolent or malevolent.
A common thread that runs through all of Rajiv Dogra’s books is the question: do leaders make the best decisions? Is the world governed wisely? The book is a must-read. It is a magnificent cathedral of words.
This book will haunt us for a long time. It raises fundamental questions that must be addressed in an increasingly automated world dominated by artificial intelligence. Will there then be a new roadmap to tyranny?
This is a difficult journey in which the reader travels through time with case studies of specific dictators. The author draws on his own experience as ambassador to post-Ceausescu Romania, a country I had visited in 1984 as a UN disarmament fellow, and where I met him and his dreaded wife. My clear memory of Ceausescu Romania was of very low voltage, dim lights, bad food except cherry tomatoes, people always speaking in whispers and an atmosphere of decrepit despair, which I never experienced on our subsequent visits to communist Prague and East Germany.
The author explains the bestial dimensions of torture revealed by Ion Caramitru, who became Romania’s Minister of Culture after the revolution. Ion explains (page 5): “Urine was my morning baptism, my brain coolant, my therapy… I don’t remember the precise moment when my boundaries changed, but I must have crossed the Rubicon in that bucket of urine. At some point, when my head was submerged in other people’s urine, I gained the ability to realize what had always been there inside me… It gave me the freedom to think the impossible, the freedom to speak, walk and dream. I learned to dream in a bucket of urine. Ceausescu did me a favor… One resists physical torture with anger, and so hates the system even more. But the bucket of urine was my liberator. It freed me from fear. This ultimate humiliation gave me the confidence that nothing worse could follow even if I rebelled. That’s how I joined the 1989 Revolution.”
It was a revelation of the resilience of the human spirit that one could free oneself after having immersed one’s head in a bucket full of urine every morning.
The story continues. Autocrats come in all shapes and sizes. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. The author ruefully reminds us that, with a few exceptions:
““The human mind is fickle and humans are risk averse.”
The exception lies (page 14) in the infinite wisdom of Krishna as distilled in the Bhagavad Gita.
“When there is decay of righteousness, O Bharata, [Arjun]and there is exaltation of injustice, then I manifest Myself for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evildoers, to establish justice, I come from age to age.
Why then did Krishna not manifest himself throughout the 188 years of colonial rule in India? Perhaps the answer lies within us, as Vivekananda said. We should have united and fought back. More on this later.
Was the recourse to the ideology of dictators by philosophers of the time justified, beyond their own books, such as Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”?
Yes, a resounding yes. The author (page 26) recalls Thomas Hobbes, who stated in ‘Leviathan’: There was no objective distinction between vicious or virtuous kings.
“For those who are discontented with monarchy call it tyranny; and those who are discontented with aristocracy call it oligarchy; so those who are distressed under a democracy call it anarchy…” In Leviathan, Hobbes also argued: “The state of nature was one in which there were no enforceable standards of right and wrong. People took for themselves as much as they could get, and human life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
Today, how can a dictator be defined? Society is no longer the one described in Leviathan or what followed it, which was the period of colonialism and financial imperialism, with colonised peoples treated as subhuman by “democrats” like Churchill. But the author explains that there is a pattern, described as the “dark triad” concept (referring to a trio of negative personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy) to explain the mindset of a dictator.
The next painful question to be faced and answered is what drives some people to be so submissive to tyranny. India, for example, chose to avoid retaliation, despite the depravity of its colonizers.
The British officer, Lieutenant George Cracklow, in his letter written after the events of 1857, describes with glee what happened to the captured Indian rebels.:
“The prisoners were taken to the guns… and tied to the muzzles of the guns… The guns exploded… On either side of the guns, about 10 meters away, lay the arms torn off at shoulder level.”
VS Naipaul cynically stated in his book ‘The Area of Darkness’:
“No other country was more prepared to receive a conqueror; no other conqueror was more welcome than the British. While they dominated India, they expressed their contempt for it and projected England; and the Indians were forced to adopt a nationalism which was at first like an imitation of the British.”
This attitude was interpreted as submission bordering on cowardice and (p. 190) the author regrets to point out that for almost a thousand years, foreign conquerors continued to march into India to take control. The example of India’s resigned acceptance was also given by other populations around the world. India has also never sought a formal apology from its brutal colonizers. Why not?
Others, like the Afghans, resisted as did the Eastern Bloc, symbolized by the Romanian revolution of 1989.
The author raises the logical question:
“Why do some people rebel while others choose to submit in fatalistic acceptance?”
Étienne de La Boétie responded in ‘The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude’:
“Decide not to serve any longer and you will be immediately released. I do not ask you to lay hands on the tyrant to overthrow him, but simply to stop supporting him; then you will see him, like a great colossus whose pedestal has been removed, fall under his own weight and break into pieces.”
Sadly, India, such a large nation, never followed this wise advice. Why?
Who else can resist tyranny? The author reminds the reader that speaking truth to power is a crucial role of the writer and poet. Poet and feminist Maya Angelou makes this clear through the symbolism of a caged bird:
“The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but still longed for and its melody is heard on the distant hill because the caged bird sings of freedom.”
Another difficult question is that of charisma. What role does it play in the formation of an autocrat? The author (page 140) makes this important point:
“Charisma is a tricky label to use to categorize people because, unlike karma, charisma doesn’t come in good and bad packages. It’s what you make of it. President Kennedy exuded it, but so did Hitler.”
Charisma can be dark but it can also bring light.
As Peter Drucker, writer, management consultant and professor said:
“The three most charismatic leaders of the 20th century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin and Mao. What matters is not the charisma of the leader, but his mission.”
The most suggestive aspect of the book is the author’s warning about the future “hybrid dictator.” As he writes with apprehension:
“The world and its future generations will have to prepare for a completely different kind of dictatorship: a technological dictatorship or a “hybrid dictatorship,” in which AI is the secondary driver making decisions to be implemented by a figurehead. The scope of this hybrid dictatorship need not be limited to national borders.”
Reflect on this:
“It is hardly possible for a philosopher to emerge from among us who would cry: ‘freedom, freedom.’ The life of the people under such a hybrid dictator will be dark and gloomy. There will not be a glimmer of light, not even a ray of light, at the end of that long and depressing tunnel.”
At the end of my journey, I must stress that “Autocrats” is a fascinating read, but it is much more than that. It fearlessly shines a beacon of light into the minds of world leaders throughout time and reflects on what distinguishes a great leader from a dictator.
While reading the previous part, I was reminded of Shelley’s poem ‘Ozymandias’ and its last verse:
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look at my works, O you who are mighty, and despair!
Nothing else remains. Around the decadence
Of that colossal, unlimited and naked shipwreck
The lonely, flat sands stretch into the distance.”
In the end, to the anxious reader, the author jokingly offers a ray of hope by quoting poet Sahir Ludhianvi:
“One day, that dawn will come,
When after centuries of darkness, the veil of night slips,
When the clouds of sorrow melt, when the ocean of satisfaction is immense,
When the sky begins to dance with joy, when the earth sings songs,
Surely there will be that dawn.”
He then concludes that perhaps one morning the world could wake up to a sunrise like this one.
In response to him, I quote Kahlil Gibran in ‘The Prophet’, someone who has always given me hope in the darkest moments of my life.
“Orphalese village,
You can dampen the drum,
And you can loosen the strings of the lyre,
But who will order the lark not to sing?
That human spirit will confront and defeat the hybrid dictator and facilitate Krishna’s return.
– Profile by Ambassador Bhaswati Mukherjee, a distinguished Indian Foreign Service Officer and a prolific author. She served as India’s Ambassador to UNESCO and the Netherlands, held key positions as an Independent Director, and is a leading political commentator and international relations expert, with extensive contributions to global policy debates and publications.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the post for any purpose.
We respect the intellectual property rights of content creators. If you are the owner of any material featured on our website and have concerns about its use, please contact us. We are committed to addressing any copyright issues promptly and will remove any material within 2 days of receiving a request from the rightful owner.