Communism Inc. A study in Irony

Ernesto was a doctor. One day he took off on his motorbike and travelled across South America. The journey gave him his 'Buddha' moment. Like the truth dawned upon Prince Gautam, transforming him into the Buddha, Ernesto's realization that 'government' is a cuss word transformed him into Che. Che Guevara, Guerrillero Heroico. Fidel Castro's main man, Che was killed in a CIA sponsored attack in 1967, much before this latest incarnation of Prometheus.

Some say he was a tyrant and some call him the Butcher of La Cabana. Some like Jean Paul Sartre called him 'not only an intellectual, but the most complete man of our age'. Nelson Mandela called him a champion of freedom. Che was a voracious reader, reading the works of greats as diverse as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, H.G. Wells, Jawaharlal Nehru, Jean Paul Sartre, Franz Kafka, Nietzsche, Aristotle, Budhha, Jack London, Freud, Kipling and Keats. Che lived for the Revolucion. So much that when he was about to be executed and asked whether he was thinking about his immortality, he replied that he was thinking of the immortality of the revolution and that his executioner would but kill a man, not his thought.

What is Prometheus' connection with Che? Prometheus is even less communist than Dubya. So what gives?

Prometheus saw a cool dude on the street today. Dude (pronounced d-oo-d) was armed with an iPhone, an iPod, Oakly eyewear, RBK shoes, the US flag in a bandana form. And Che on his tee shirt. That most famous photograph of Che, taken by Alberto Korda and titled Guerrillero Heroico. That star on the beret, that intense look, the intelligence in the eyes, that resolve on the face.




And Prometheus was again reminded of the greatest monument to Irony. The man who called capitalism 'a contest among wolves', being used by capitalists to shift everything 'from t-shirts to coffee mugs and even bikinis'.

Prometheus' brush with governments has not made him militant. But the left-leaning ideology of India and its failures does make him tend to veer away from socialism. In one of his travels across India, Prometheus met a semi-militant revivalist. Though Prometheus disagreed with some this man's ideas, he remembers something that was till then never so succinctly stated. "The Bureaucracy was installed by the Colonial rulers to serve their interest and to oppress the natives. The Hand that Rules has changed from White to Brown, but the Machine was made for the purpose of oppression and oppress it still does. Changing the hand cannot change the function of the machine." The other monument to Irony. The Socialist, Secular Republic of the people, by the people and for the people.

Technorati: thoughts leadership Che Guevara India

How grey is black?

Prometheus believes that religion, beliefs and ethics should keep up with the times. In these grey times, one must adapt or perish, as Darwin hath QED-ed. A scrap in a newspaper has made Prometheus ponder just how much grey is black?

The said scrap spoke of Ego. Not as a despicable trait, but as an energy that should be channelised. The ego-electricity of a team made up of the egos of the team constituents, directionalized by the greater ego-electricity of the team leader, channelized to achieve unimaginable goals. It quoted a certain gent saying 'I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership'. How misquoted this quote is, Prometheus knows not. But he know the statement came from someone who he respects. Someone whose biography is the only biography Prometheus has (for no particular reason then) read and (for a particular reason now) cares to read. Lido Anthony (Lee) Iacocca. Boggles the mind, since Prometheus read that Mr. Iacocca preferred to be called Lee by everyone, subordinates included.

The news item spoke of a system that does not shun ego, but harnesses it. A system where old-school niceties would be an encumbrance, Prometheus suspects. It is proven beyond fragment of doubt to Prometheus that doing away with protocol may seem like it brings people closer but actually ends up breeding deep resentment. It is extremely challenging to rein in subordinates who overdraw on the 'first-name-basis' facility given by the leader. When (not if) things reach unbearable proportions, as they soon do, re-establishing control splits people asunder like no other force. Reacting before 'things reach unbearable proportions' (read your mind, didn't Prometheus?) is viewed as over-reacting, overbearing.

Prometheus the old-school gent is at war (albeit politely, with war stoppages for tea and the weekends) with Prometheus the new-age, wannabe overachiever, who loves to quote his hero Bill Gates. 'If I'd had some set idea of a finish line, don't you think I'd have crossed it years ago?'

Technorati tags: Management, Leadership, Work