YPS

A long time ago ( in dog years) I wrote a “young leader” and asked him to be careful about tapping the emotions of a population to further his political agenda. Not that an emotional connection to achieve a political end is necessarily wrong, but more that unless the emotions are balanced with an intellectual or fact based foundation, then the standards , as they are attached to the heart, are set abnormally and unreasonably high. These standards are the stuff of which old school comic books are made of. Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Salute the flag. Love thy country. Good versus evil. White versus black.

Comic books may have been to designed to distill the ideal homo sapien from the disturbing menagerie of foibles and, as a specie, our very nature to destroy each other, so we construct our heroes from a wish list of characteristics that we want or have not, to date, seen. But, as time has gone on, all our once invincible and perfect superheroes have been made more real, not only to accommodate a more cynical audience, but, Id like to believe, to press forward the notion that the significance of heroism is not in the perfection of the man turned hero, but in the humanity that the man has to surpass in order to achieve heroism.

For many people to have so much pain after only two months of Noys leadership is a painful reminder not only of the inevitable discovery of Noys feet of clay, or of the predominantly emotional campaign that had to be run in order for him to win, but also that the trauma of the previous administration ( and perhaps administrations before that) have been so great. Like a battered woman that recoils at her new lovers raising of voice ( if only in jest) or sudden move as if to strike ( if only to swat away an insect), we see visions of the past lurking ( real or imagined) in the shadows of the present.

In a real sense, Noy is now paying the real costs of his winning the elections. When side by side by the previous darkness that was the previous administration, and cloaked by the halo of his parentage, the contrast was so great that the choice seemed obvious despite his own real, human, shortcomings.

Now, Noy stands, not against the backdrop of the past’s darkness, but against the backdrop of the brighter light of his campaign promises. His every word, his every inflection, his every facial expression, his every decision, will now be held to the superhuman standards which his campaign was built on. His only hope at perfection is that the people around him fill his weaknesses and gaps of experience with their strengths and expertise and that his cabinet will complete the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that all mortal humans are.

The only problem is that to merely hope was never part the promise.

For a brief and shining moment Noy was Superman.

Now its time for Noy to be a real man.