by Strength and being strong have thin dissimilarity; the former is a noun and the latter, an adjective.
Both deal with ability of physical strength, ruggedness to endure vicissitudes of life.
But more often than not, people use the term often for political leaders or head of a sovereign state that is ruthless, irascible and quick to decisions in period of emergencies and uncertainties.
But a careful study would reveal that possesing the attributes aforementioned neither translates to strength nor being strong; more often than not, it is a reaction born out of fear, insecurity, complex, dictatorship and greed.
Being really a strong leader connotes leadership, empathy, forthrightness, humanity, humility, qualitative thinking, dynamism, accomodating, being intune with due process and discipline among many attributes.
A leader whose arrogance of ignorance, irascibility, shortsightedness lead to mass deaths via pogrom or other forms of violence like genocide, ethnic cleasing etc could not be regarded as a strong leader but rather a weak leader.
Make no mistakes, leaders with personality disorders should not be referenced as stong leaders. More often than not, the consequences of their disorder alters established ethos; leads to disruption of social cohesion; and it is capable snowballing into world disorder. There are couple of personality disorders researchers have discovered and one is “Charming Psycophathy. There is also Sociopathy disorder. Either of the two that afflicts a leader will surely negatively impact on the country.
Below is a culled excerpt from my previous opinion published in Nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/ajiboye/041410.html
“So who is a Charismatic psychopath? Psychopathy is a personality disorder and one who possesses it is said to be ‘morally depraved’ individual. Charismatic psychopath is said to be a ‘charming, attractive liar…usually gifted at some talent or another…’ which more often than not, he uses to his own benefit in manipulating others and through his demonic ability, he can persuade others to loathe everything their own including their lives. Such is the potency of his irresistibility and such is his toxic leadership.
Like a sociopath, he is egocentric and others are valuable to him only when they can aggrandize his pleasures and position. He is generally unremorseful, and does not possess any real love but can inspire others to love him awesomely. When others come to harm through his actions, he is not sympathetic talk less of reversing the situation as imagining were he to be in that situation. He is an extrovert, who loves to be adored by others and he basks in the euphoria of praises by others. Words constitute part of his ability to get out of trouble notwithstanding the honours attached to it.
Like all other forms of psychopaths, a charming psychopath longs for power and possession and more often prefers shortcuts to sweating to get his desires. He is skilful in manipulation and knows best most people’s deeper pathologies through which he manipulates and ‘influence” their “feelings”.
Research is said to have shown that this disorder is associated with “…neurological abnormalities…in the frontal lobe of the brain” and this has made “lies, deceiving and manipulation” inborn traits of a psychopath and it all trickle down to ability to dominate others. He would engage in selective amnesia if it suits his purpose in a particular situation when his lies are detected.
Whenever a country mistakenly chose a leader with such disorder,it behooves on all to ensure that it is quickly corrected as soon as the opportunity arises, otherwise they sill all pay a price; definitely not a pleasant one.
