Maroc - EURASIAREVIEW.COM - A la une - 30/12/2024 17:16

Narcissistic Leadership In The 21st Century – OpEd

Leadership is the art of blending vision, discipline, courage, integrity, and intelligence with the science of selflessness. A leader is a person who is confident about his beliefs and has uncompromising values that are driven by a goal or a mission and who takes his people along in his journey. Narcissist leaders are different. They are fueled with excessive self-regard, lack of empathy, constant admiration, and self-centered vision. Narcissist leaders are reshaping the political landscape of global politics. It is not just about America or Russia, or Turkey or Brazil, the whole world is suffering from selfish leadership posing a risk to the global risks associated with democracy and global peace. Narcissism is not a new political phenomenon. Julius Caesar is the best example of a narcissistic leader whose overly self-centered actions led to the destruction of the Roman Republic. His narcissistic attitude can be seen clearly with his famous statement “I came, I saw and I conquered” and his infamous statement “It is only hubris if I fail”. These justifications came with the cost of the Roman Republic’s downfall. In the modern world, characteristics like over-confidence, selfishness, and ruthlessness are increasing among political leaders worldwide. These leaders start with a promise of restoring national pride, fighting for the national interest, and being willing to sacrifice all things for the sake of the prosperity and growth of the nation. They insist on convincing their followers that they are just representatives and are conveying the masses’ viewpoint to the higher authorities. The real problem arises when people begin to place their trust in these leaders and unquestioningly follow their words. They are unable to understand and process the unspoken intentions of their leaders which are later depicted by particular actions that indicate them as an individual. Donald Trump’s stance on “I alone can fix it” during the 2016 election campaign and his refusal to accept the defeat he faced in the 2020 election showed that he put himself above democracy. Under his leadership, the relationship of the USA with the allies and adversarial states is evident in his narcissistic views. He used social media to launch campaigns that favored him and were against every other state, adversaries or persons. His dismissal of climate science and handling the pandemic situation was even worse.  The game of power without accountability comes under the leadership umbrella of Vladimir Putin. His attitude towards the leadership style was more authoritarian with a blend of narcissistic self-obsession. He has a history of frequently manipulating national crises, policies, laws and regulations, and even the circumstances at war with Ukraine. Putin portrayed him as a central figure in the history of Russia with his manipulative tactics to keep the hold and the power. He never accepted or tolerated dissent. His government's opponents were punished and imprisoned, and there was constant evidence of free expression being suppressed. In correspondence to Ceaser’s viewpoints, Putin also believes that the destiny of Russia is only linked to his personal views and threat to Putin’s power is a threat to Russia. Like Russia and the USA, another case of narcissist leadership is seen in Brazil. Nationalist populism was the root cause of bringing Jair Bolsonaro to power. Experts without any doubt marked his leadership as completely narcissistic, particularly in handling crises during the pandemic and the policies regarding public welfare. His self-obsession and indifferent stance to public welfare lead to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Frequent attacks on media, opposition and institution can be anything but a true leadership.  Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a textbook example of his narcissistic leadership style. He has slowly dismantled Turkey’s democratic institutions replacing them with the system that gives power to the president. Another example of a Muslim nation is Pakistan. Imran Khan won the election as a popular leader but as he came into power, putting the interest of his people, he put himself first. He started the blame game politics and ended up in the national division.  It is not the end here. There is a long list of such leaders ruling globally for the sake of risk to global peace. These examples are included not only to illustrate their narcissistic leadership styles but also to highlight the long-term effects on nations and the world. Behind building the self-image, using propaganda against opponents and political manipulation there exists undermined democratic norms. The foreign policies designed under the narcissistic viewpoints of these leaders are driven by their need for validation and a sense of entitlement. They refuse to take responsibility of acknowledged failure.  Social media has made communication easier for all of us, but the use of social media by narcissistic leaders can affect the nation as a whole and the allies and adversarial states as well. Regardless of long-term loss, they use this medium for building their image, propagating their agenda, gas lighting the nations with twisted facts and news. Likes and reach give them a sense of constant validation and supporters of such leaders go into the keyboard war with the opponents constantly rejecting their viewpoints and bashing and bullying them all over social media. This makes the voices of the opponents suppressed and the narrative of that particular narcissist leader propagates. The echo of the unwanted voices all over the globe regarding the praises of narcissistic leaders makes a nation adapt to narcissistic policies. People stop thinking about the real and straight facts and in the end, the whole nation becomes part of this narcissistic propaganda. It only gives power and self-satisfaction to these leaders and destroys the nations endangering global peace. Now, as the stakes are highest, the right time is to act. We should look for narcissistic behaviors in our leaders and instead of supporting them and empowering them, make them accountable. This unchecked narcissism in leadership leads to instability, division and the collapse of democratic systems and the world cannot afford to allow narcissistic leaders to continue their unchecked power for the sake of global peace.