It’s Hypocrisy, Stupid!
Nothing seems to be more definitive of the human experience as hypocrisy is.
It is the reason why some, not of as much moral constitution as they would wish the world to believe, would describe others as immoral, primitive, uncivilised, or incapable of being able to organise their societies within the frame of higher values. Yet, our shared history as humans speaks otherwise, and points out primal similarities, while also revealing that the ability to point at others and call them needless names is essentially a function of power.
One of the greatest theatres of hypocrisy is certainly the sphere of leadership. And, we see its routine enactments from the so-called dysfunctional spaces of Africa’s ‘banana’ republics, to the gilded halls of privilege, from Downing Street, to Westminster, then Washington DC, and beyond.
Not just in Africa, or some parts of Asia, there is a crisis of leadership all over the world. And the need to keep reinventing leadership across great swathes of the human experience. Which makes the moral posturing and condescending outlook of the West deeply hypocritical, if not annoying. Still, its inspiring to see that a newer movement has started calling into question the honesty of leaders, from Aso Rock to 10, Downing Street, and the American White House.
As a function of the powers they have appropriated due to their economic dominance, countries of the West have arrogated to themselves the role of the policeman of the world, defining and deciding on the standards of accountability to hold others to. This is more so benchmarked on their systems of democratic and economic governance or, simply, social norms.
They even seek to police morality in deciding what should be acceptable behaviour, conduct or even stance on issues, such as sexual orientations or the different ascriptions to gender – whether non-binary, transgender, gender neutral, etc. Or even that greater incursion into privacy by trying to police the woman’s body, as evident in the recent overturning of Roe vs. Wade in the United States and the decision on the legality or not of abortion rights.
But the police man of the world itself appears to be in need of serious policing, pointing to the fundamental hypocrisy in the global order, essentially by those who consider themselves as powerful enough to call others derogatory names, despite the thinly veiled dysfunction in their own make-up, constantly erupting to the surface.
I’ll elucidate with two poignant instances, which vividly illustrate the coalescing of tendencies that had always been immanent. In contemplating the spectacle in two prominent bastions of the Western world – the United States of America and the United Kingdom – as representative of the inherent inclination, in recent times, it is almost clear why questions of and the questioning of leadership has become very critical at this historical juncture. And, it has ‘democratised’ the spotlight prejudicially trained on Africa, whilst amplifying the deep moral fault-lines in the human nature.
Moral Decadence as the American Exceptionalism?
Not too long ago, there was the eruption that offered its most concrete expression in Donald Trump, who sought a very monarchical presidency in the United States, and tried to run the country by fiat as a dictatorship. The nasty trail of his toxic leadership has witnessed the rise and almost institutionalisation of racism, along with persistent race-baiting, the sponsorship of hate-driven immigration legislation, a wilful distortion of public policy to suit private profit – as evident in the near destruction of the climate agenda, etc. These were finally crowned by that ugly insurrection on the Capitol – in an act that tried to overthrow the national parliament as an enduring symbol of democracy.
Worse still, Trump turned lying into statecraft, and this very shameful act was almost conferred with some sort of perverse respectability through its description as the enabling of ‘alternative facts’. When truth becomes relative, it inaugurates a moral universe that is baleful. The Washington Post, which took up the noble task of chronicling these devious lies, revealed in its ‘Fact checker’ that Trump told 30,573 lies over his four-year presidency, averaging an erroneous 21 claims per day! It is documented that in his first 100 days in office, the 45th president of the United States made 492 “suspect claims” and on November 2, 2020 alone, as he sought re-election, he made 503 “false or misleading claims”! Under Trump, the American exceptionalism appeared to have been hinged on moral decadence.
As successor to that malevolent presidency, concerns around the integrity of leadership however remain, even if of a less despicable tenor, for now. In his first 100 days in office, Forbes has equally observed President Biden as having made false claims in his statements discussing the minimum wage and immigration patterns.
United in Duplicity?
Boris Johnson has been described by his people in the United Kingdom as a “serial lair” whose prime calculus, from 2015 when he became Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip with eyes on the Prime Minister’s seat, was about getting advantage for himself. He has also been noted as a serial traitor, who was a prominent actor in the vicious shenanigans and back-stabbing that brought down administrations from that of Gordon Brown to David Cameron and more recently, Theresa May, who he took over from. There were certainly the outright lies about what Brexit entailed and would achieve, which ultimately swung the pendulum in his favour during the leave campaign.
We’ve seen the fallout of the past few days of vicious bloodletting in Downing Street, which has shown Boris Johnson the door, even as he seeks to latch on to straw in one final act of desperation. His catalogue of misdeeds show how he rehabilitated his official quarters as Prime Minister from a private donation that reeks of corrupt influence-peddling, and the reprehensible acts of partying during COVID restrictions – at periods when the entire country was held to a different standard that almost smothered life out of many stranded in need. There was also the rank cronyism of enabling the boys’ network, with the promotion of an aide who had been indicted as a sexual offender, among a slew of other official misdemeanour. While he wants to remain as caretaker PM till October, many in his party feel he is already too morally damaged to remain in this position, and they insist that he must leave immediately.
Children of a Lesser God?
Within the dubious heritage and frame of naming, we can reflect on the prejudicial epithets that have been hauled at Africans, Nigerians, and Others from time immemorial, of being uncivilised, incapable of self-government, ‘fantastically corrupt’, and running banana republics that deserve nothing short of a newer colonialism.
– Dele is a teller of stories and a chronicler of a world in flux.
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