Candidates, vilification and the eunuch syndrome

There’s a book I strongly recommend to anyone who is interested in the issue of power, naked exercise of control and subtle control, ideologically and otherwise: Soul on Ice by Elridge Cleaver.

There is a chapter on what Cleaver calls ‘The White Eunuch’. Cleaver refers to the rise of black athletes. At some point white people had to concede that the African American was superior when it comes to running, jumping etc. Football, basketball, baseball, track and field were all dominated by black athletes and white boys had to hang on to ice hockey and ultimate Frisbee which they then came to see as preferred ethnic sports.

It was not easy to acknowledge of course, because white racism claimed superiority on all counts over other races. Conceding that blacks were better at anything was a terrible psychological come down.

Presidential candidates

They looked for and thought they found an answer to this. They said, Cleaver explains, ‘yes, you people got a superior body, but we have the superior mind; we are therefore the wise guys’. For a while it seemed the perfect come back. There was however a hitch: when white boy conceded the body to the black boy, he had to concede his private parts.

He had to say that the black man’s sexual prowess was superior. He could never live it down.

I remembered Soul on Ice and the theory of the white eunuch when I listened to some of the claims made by one of the more prominent Presidential candidates.

This man would have us believe that he alone deserves all credit for the victory over terrorism. Leaders are usually endowed with big egos, but history has shown that the best, most successful and most loved leaders the world has known have been endowed less with ego than with humility. The biggest problem with big egos is just that: they are BIG. And people trip over them. Like our hero.

When he says ‘I did it all’ he immediately implies ‘no one else did anything’. And when he says ‘he did this and that, was reckless, ordered that all LTTE should be killed even if they were surrendering’ he concedes that he was not the boss. He has tripped over his ego.

It is an either-or situation; either he was in control or he was not. He can’t say ‘pin mage, pau thoge’ (I get all the credit for all the good and as for the sins, they are all yours). He can’t say ‘I was in charge from the beginning to end and will take all responsibility for everything that happened’ and in the same breath state that someone else had made a horrendous mistake, ‘issued directives’.

If one uses Cleaver’s analogy, we are talking about eunuchs here. We are talking about a candidate who is basically saying all males are rapists and screaming that he is not one, quite forgetting that he is saying he is impotent. Can’t have it both ways, brother. Sorry.

There’s more to impotency though. First of all this man seems to be harbouring the illusion that he’s in a contest with the Defence Secretary and not the incumbent President. Listen to him; he seems to be fully focused on vilifying the Defence Secretary. That would be like fighting with Pulidevan, thinking that he, Pulidevan, is the LTTE leader. That’s analytical impotency, I believe.

Web page

And what of the issues? The man’s website says it all. Check it out. Click on ‘issues’. Here’s the message we get: ‘under construction’. I know, I know, it is just about some delay in the construction of a web page. It is symptomatic though. He doesn’t have a clue about issues.

He has NOTHING to say about the economy. He has NOTHING to say about the how and why of abolishing the Executive Presidency. He has NOTHING to say about the realities of Constitutional reform.

He has NOTHING to say about electoral reform. He has NOTHING to say about anything. Except the Defence Secretary. It’s therefore either sour grapes or downright jealousy and related bitterness.

All told, we are talking about a lot of eunuchs here. A lot of impotency all around. Does not add up to an effective campaign or an able alternative. A lot of empty talk and a manifest lack in areas some people consider are of vital importance.

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