Georgia – Producer of Leaders
Op-Ed
The Easter vacation is over but the holiday mood is still on, and I have decided to wax jocose rather than remain serious because soberness does not suit the elevated Easter mood. There goes a joke that Georgia is not capable of giving much to the world, but the nation is proud to be a manufacturer of presidents and prime ministers. Surprised? One might surely be astonished to hear that a country had such a role, but there is a curious thought buried in these words. Indeed, this is a culture that rears leader-type personalities in abundance; those with an ambition to rule, to give instruction and to boss around. I am not saying that we are lazy – languidness is not the main feature of our character and indolence is not venerated here. As a matter of fact, we have nothing against sweat but we also like to be at the helm rather than in front of a furnace with a spade in our weathered hands; labor is OK for us but an executive chair feels more comfortable; running errands for somebody else is not an embarrassment, but having people in attendance is always more attractive; chauffeuring a master's car could earn a piece of bacon but sprawling on the back seat of your own limo is more relaxing; being a security detail for a prime minister is a bearable job but enjoying state-funded security is any man’s dream; writing speeches for a president is OK but making that same speech from a shiny rostrum is undoubtedly more thrilling.
These are sensitive differences, sitting miles apart in the imagination of any person of any nationality, but the Georgian fancy is even more susceptible towards those moral and material gaps because the sturdiest part of an average Georgian’s dream is to be “up there.”
Lower societal levels could be a reason for pessimism in our career-hungry minds. I don't know what makes us so terribly proud of ourselves, but an average Georgian, especially men, crave to rule the roost, feeling like a cock on a dunghill even if the dunghill is not his own. A typical Georgian man would not give up a leader's place in the family even if he is not making money. And the family would allow it. This is the tradition, strongly maintained in our culture.
From a regular shrink’s viewpoint, this could be preconditioned by certain psychological fragments from a Georgian male’s childhood, adolescence or youth, the most vivid among them being the famous tamada (toastmaster) institution. All Georgian men want to be the tamada; at least subconsciously, because the tamada is a leader, he is a tone-giver, determiner, decision-maker and finally, the subject of veneration, provided he is good enough at his job. Great tamadas want to be political leaders and vice versa: great political leaders have a propensity to function as a toastmaster.
I’m not saying this is good or bad. What I’m trying to drive home is that presidents, prime ministers, kings, emperors and tamadas are deep-seated in the character of the regular Georgian male, and many of them self-train to achieve those heights in real life. The gist of the matter is that a leader, a boss, a chief, a commander, a principal, a superior, are naturally nursed in an average Georgian man, so we can stop building factories, desist from working in farmlands, forget about science and technology, discontinue services and end the production of goods, and start producing national leaders like presidents, prime ministers and chairmen to sell them to other countries – not for cheap, of course! I would experiment with this out-of-the-ordinary commodity. What are we losing, after all?
By Nugzar B. Ruhadze
Image source: tobiachudume.com