Know Thyself...You Bet!

Last Friday the late Hugo Cháves (Hugo Rafael Cháves Frias) was laid to rest, embalmed and placed in a military museum in a glass coffin -  just like Lenin. He was the leader of Venezuela for fourteen years. Thousands of Venezuelans mourned his passing while the country was busy throwing out two American military attaches accused of spreading disorder. He introduced many reforms to help the poor with housing, food markets and free health care. Some might say he exploited the poor to get their political support!

He was no friend of the USA. President Bush was accused of giving some support for a coup d'état to remove him from power. Cháves called Bush the devil and on one occasion, speaking at the U.N. the day after George B., he said the podium still smelled of sulphur! The present Canadian PM referred to him as the leader of an authoritarian petro-state. Would oil have anything to do with these views?

 So what else is new?  Over the years I have found, although I am no great leader of state (!), that I have friends and no doubt enemies. In my case the enemies don't really matter as I can deceive myself by thinking that's their problem! I think it is safe to say that the more perceived power a person has, the more enemies they will have as well. It's a question of degree. Since I never coveted power I think it is safe to say I have more friends than enemies.

Francis Bacon once wrote that to achieve power over others is to lose power over yourself. "It is a strange desire, to seek power and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others and to lose power over a man's self." (Of Great Place) Stop and think about it for a moment. People of power, especially today, have to surround themselves with body guards, they can't walk down the street like you and I, and they have very little privacy in their lives. Men who wear a uniform, and want some privacy in public, dress in mufti - ordinary civilian clothes to maintain that privacy. 

Is there some truth to the saying, 'People like people who are most like themselves'? Personally I like people who are just themselves. I believe each and every one of us is unique. Here comes another generalization from this octogenarian, most people want to be liked and loved. If they go out of their way to try to make others like them, they probably will not be successful. Not everyone has charisma, but having it is not a condition to be liked or loved either.

The frequently used quote from Hamlet, "To thine own self be true and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." If we deceive ourselves, we will also kid and deceive others as well. It is so easy, and even perhaps necessary at times, to run our life on 'auto-pilot'. I find it helps to find a few minutes each day to stop, listen to your body and, as the existentialists say, just allow you to be you.

I am in no position to judge Hugo Cháves. Loved by some, disliked, for whatever reason, by others. In our own circumstance is this not a common condition of us all. Fortunately, we won't be hanging around in a glass coffin when our journey comes to an end! So just be yourself while you can.

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week