Compassion for Strong Men – a Democracy of Love…

What if we approached the authoritarians
who have asserted themselves
around the world – with compassion?

Perhaps Putin suffers from Napolean
Complex – the plight of small men
and yearning for the late, great days
when he fought metaphorical rats
in dark corners with the KGB
Was he stunted by the starvation
that took his brother, is that why
he cannot have enough of everything?
He is the Strong Man, bare-chested
on horseback projecting his lost
glory days onto his country and trying
to obliterate a country that was there
when Muscovy was just a swamp
– is that what it will take
to make him feel better?

Has Trump really found a friend
who understands his needs
facilitated his election – twice
or is Putin playing him for a patsy
to suit his own purposes?
Did being born with a silver spoon
in his mouth – paid $20,000 a year
by his father, a millionaire by age eight
set impossible expectations that
made a seedbed for hubris and
underhand shortcuts in the attempt
to make the grade?
In bed with a somewhat Mafia connected Cohn
– another avuncular mentor
who gave him a love of litigation
was Trump needing more of a father’s
love than he could possibly find
in reality – is that why he turned
to reality TV and ultimately to presidency?

Post colonially
India seemed like a beacon of
spiritual inclusion, diversity and equality
with its mixture of religions
living side by side
for the most part, peacefully
but Modi promoted Nationalism
but only for Hindus, Moslems
don’t belong – old hatreds
once more resurrected
in the service of party political
power and concomitant
self-aggrandisement.
Was it being born into a background
of Other Backward Class
as his neighbourhood was classified
or serving tea to haughty strangers
on the station platform with his father
that made Modi aspire to climb so high?
What shame did he bear for denying
his marriage to become a pracharak
in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
a leg-up the social ladder
for which celibacy was a requirement?
How many people have to die in
religious pogroms to wash away
the scars of humble origin?

And in another place riven
with religious but not racial
differences, one Semitic people
try to delete another
– to take their place
by God given right, they claim
led by a man terrified to
lose it all, the power, the respect
on account of personal corruption
– the prison that awaits him if
he lets go for a moment
of the extreme nationalist narrative
that keeps his country behind him
even though they slide ever downwards
in the eyes of the world

I don’t know about Orban
or President Xi, but
what are the chances that these other
strong men have a weakness within
that drives their story?
We can react with anger, horror
disbelief, to the authoritarian
network that has overtaken
the global village of recent decades
even with all its village quarrels
and soetimes worse
it was better than this divisive
hate filled place we now find
ourselves thrust into
– but where will it get us?
What if we all wrote to
the strong men and spoke
to their hearts with
understanding
of their personal pasts
their fears and disappointments?
Would a million letters each
be enough to salve them
with a democracy of love?

© Andrew Wilson, 2025