Are you stupid enough to be a leader?

What does it really take to become a leader? To be a celebrated figure like a king, president, mayor, CEO? I claim the bottom line is that the character needs to be dumb or ignorant enough to withstand the stupid duties and rituals that a regular leader has to perform. I rate stupidity above all other characteristics of a great leader. Are you skeptical? Look around and you’ll see. Don’t be judgmental though.  I got two strong examples to convince you. First one is from Hollywood, which I partly steal from one of Slavoj Zizek’s lectures. Second one (the better one) is from Sri Lanka and is entirely mine.

King’s Speech

The movie unveils the story of King George VI of Britain who assumed throne at the time of World War II. However, he had a terrific problem; a stammer. Because of that he was unable to address the nation strongly in a way that a king is supposed to. This was frustrating for the entire nation, as the British needed a strong spiritual leadership more than ever before. On one side, Hitler was attracting masses through his hypnotic speeches, while on the other side British had a king who could not utter five words in sequence.

British royal family made all attempts to cure king’s stammer. All top qualified speech therapists failed in developing his speaking abilities to a satisfactory level. Driven by frustration, the queen decides to bring her husband to an unorthodox (and unqualified) Australian therapist, Lionel Logue, who uses weird techniques to bring speaking abilities to people who struggle with it. Although he is not very well qualified for the job Lionel has achieved remarkable success with the experience in helping people who lost speech because of traumatic experiences during World War I. After diagnosing king’s problem, he makes a radical judgment. His conclusion is that King George VI is too intelligent to be a king. The king has to suppress his intelligence to cope with the stupid duties he gets as a king, and the suppression returns in subconscious to cause stammer.

Lionel sees only two options available for the king.

1     1. To be intelligent so keeping the stammer

2     2. Kill his intelligence to become stupid like other kings and gain speaking ability

Hitler had already invaded France and from the Eastern front had penetrated Russia to a great deal. It was a time to worry about the future of entire Europe; not about a single person’s intellectual fidelity. So Lionel decides to go ahead with the second option. Through a series of utterly stupid exercises he manages to slowly make the king blunt. In a seen towards the end of the movie, Lionel sits on king’s seat in Westminster Abbey. The king loses his cool and yells Lionel to get out of it, to be asked back “Why?”. King responds asserting that the seat belongs only to him by the divine law of British monarchy. This brings a grim into Lionel’s face as he learns that the king is now stupid enough to believe on that crap. His therapy is apparently successful. King starts to speak relatively well and you know the result of World War II.  

Subha & Yasa

This is a classic from Sri Lankan history. It’s about a king (Yasa) and his lookalike Subha (security guard in the palace). To fool ministers and the rest of the elite, Subha and Yasa used to exchange their costumes and thereby the identity. Then they made fun watching high ranked guys greeting the security guard in the guise of king. On one day Subha decided to exploit this joke and insisted that he is the real king. When the stupid (real) king opposed he ordered him being killed. This is the version in “Mahavansaya” (mainstream book that narrates Sri Lankan history) and is only good enough as bead time reading for children (isn’t it?). However, the renowned Sinhala author Simon Nawagattegama came up with a beautiful interpretation in his stage drama named “Subha & Yasa”. Here is his version (more accurately, my interpretation on his version).

Yasalalakathissa (Yasa in short) is not happy about the crown he inherited. His problem is same as that of King George VI; he is too intelligent to be a king. He precisely knows that ministers are lying to him and the entire palace is a mega-fake built for his gaze. It annoys him when ‘vandibhattayas’ are singing ‘prashasthi’ (In Sri Lanka vandibhattayas are people who sing to the king songs that admire him, to make a living. These songs are called prashasthi. This is a tradition in the country from ancient times and is still practiced today). Yasa wants to get out of this mess and live a free life. However, leaving the crown is not that easy. People would recognize him and would bring him back to the palace. He spares his day and night thinking about a way out.

One day king Yasa hears a conversation happening in the palace garden. It is between a bunch of people engaged in garden work. The king secretly comes closer to be surprised that one guy among them looks exactly like him. By listening to the conversation he learns that the guy’s name is Subha. He is telling a story to his friends. It’s about his angelic wife and the wonderful life he is sharing with her. The woman is totally devoted to Subha and does everything to make him happy. She cooks best food in the world and never badmouths him. Above all she never cheats him. Subha ascribes every bit of happiness in his life to her. She brings meaning to his life.

Listening to this, Yasa gets surprised for the second time. Having lived with dozens of women in the palace he exactly knows that every woman is dishonest and deceitful. With a little bit of jealous towards the guy who enjoys a precious gift in life that the king himself doesn’t possess, Yasa decides to check it. The king manages to find Subha’s whereabouts and visits his home while being dressed like him when the wife is alone. The wife welcomes the man who is ostensibly her husband. She makes him sit comfortably, treats him with delicious food, pampers him with a gentle massage and so on. Yasa now turns really envious about Subha. He was true; this woman is an angel.

When the woman’s love drama intensifies Yasa starts feeling guilty. He yells: “Lady, stop! I’m not your husband. I’m the king of this country”. The next moment…………………king is shocked to see that the woman is not shocked. She whispers: “My lord, from the very first moment I knew it. You shook my feelings with your adorable body. I’m mesmerized by your greatness. I’m all yours”.  Loving a king is more beneficial than loving a peasant, isn’t it? Women are generally more materialistic than men.

Being an intelligent guy, Yasa quickly switches his thinking channel from right brain to left brain. His immediate analysis puts him in pleasure due to two reasons.

1. His judgment about women still holds true

2. He has just found an idiot who is suitable for kingship. Subha, who bases his entire life on this dishonest woman, should be a great candidate to be the king.

After this, Yasa himself becomes the mastermind of a conspiracy to deceive the entire nation to believe Subha as the king. Subha is crowned and Yasa finds the free life he ever wanted.

Dear reader, have I convinced you enough on my initial assertion? Are you already a leader? Then, congratulations. More importantly, what about those of you who are not leaders yet? You don’t need to worry, because not being a leader indicates that you still got brains. Now you confront two options. Like in King’s Speech make yourself stupid enough so that you qualify as a leader. Alternatively you can decide to continue to be intelligent, like in Subha & Yasa, while ruining all the chances of being a leader.