In 1513
Florence, as the sound of ringing church bells pervaded the warm air and the
vast plazas swarmed with innumerable purveyors of exotic wares, a rather morose
diplomat named Machiavelli scribbled away under candle light, writing a small
book which would be known to the world as ‘The
Prince’. The text attempted to offer a step-by-step guide on the basics of
maintaining power.
‘It is better to be feared than
loved, if you cannot be both’ concluded Machiavelli.
Oh there’s
some other stuff in there about killing all the family members of your enemies,
burning their cities to the ground, parking your car across their driveway and
basically indulging in everything you can do on the PC game Crusader Kings, but
the ‘fear being stronger than love’
sentiment is what the text is most famous for.
In Game of
Thrones S5E02 the concepts of leadership and the art of ruling seemed to be
central to the episode.
Stannis more
or less repeated Machiavelli’s findings in his conversation with Jon Snow,
dismissing the burning alive of Mance Rayder as something that needed to be
done to inspire the ‘fear’ needed for the masses to follow him before rolling his
eyes and apathetically detailing what he did in a matter-of-fact manner as if
burning an unarmed man to ash particles was as normal as putting the bins out
on a Tuesday.
In Jon Snow
we saw the opposite side of the debate. We saw a man of empathy, compassion,
somebody who pities the Wildlings as merely being born on the wrong side of the
wall; a man of mercy, the man who put Mance out of his misery, a ‘good lad’.
You couldn’t
say that Jon Snow inspires ‘fear’, but the men in the Night’s Watch idolise the
bastard and their loyalty appears stronger than anything found elsewhere in the
realm.
And now Snow
has won the vote to become the new Lord Commander after being informed by a
blind guy that he’d obtained the most votes [surely grounds for a recount?].
How has Snow
achieved such a lofty rise? Not by intimidating or producing fear in his peers
that’s for sure.
I can’t
think of a single time he’s mistreated anybody. Instead he’s won adoration by
treating his men as equals, showing warmth, putting his life on the line to
protect them and of course, he’s displayed immense competency in both his
physical fights and his tactics in war.
Perhaps the
fear/love dichotomy is too simplistic.
I’m just a
half-wit sitting in my pants eating Pringles, I don’t profess to know more
about philosophy than a silk-wearing Florentine diplomat, but perhaps it is ultimately
better to be ‘respected’ as a leader.
Treating
your subjects harshly, revelling in cruelty and, well, being an overly nasty piss-ant
patently doesn’t work in the world of Game of Thrones.
The Mad King
cackled as he burnt his enemies alive and acted like a mentally unwell sicko
and as a result three quarters of the realm rebelled, culminating in good old
Jamie Lannister piercing his sword through the dragon’s back.
How about
Joffrey? He pissed off absolutely everyone and got a nice glass of poison for
his troubles.
A leader
hoping to be loved, feared and respected altogether is our lovely Khaleesi,
Daenerys.
She had an
absolute mare at the weekend in Meereen though didn’t she?
In her
attempt to show everyone in the city that she’s not biased, she punished a
former slave guilty of murder by chopping his head off in quite possibly the
most inflammatory way imaginable.
She seemed
utterly bamboozled when everybody lost their shit and started rioting in
response.
We
understand that she was hoping to show everyone that the law of Meereen is
universal and applies to the Masters just as it applies to the former slaves,
but a leader must hold an understanding of the acute tensions in their
territories.
The city is a tinderbox waiting for a spark – brutally killing a
young guy on his knees who was begging for mercy, in public, is probably not
the wisest of decisions in such a tense situation.
I mean she
might have banished the bloke from the city, locked him up for a while, or even
killed him behind the scenes. Daenerys’ grand statement to the people
spectacularly backfired.
Perhaps her arrogant
and obstinate fascination with ‘doing what’s right’ [her version of what’s
right at least] will ultimately prove her undoing. For the best leaders know
when to turn a blind eye when the situation requires. The Mother of Dragons
says she isn’t a politician, well the Meereen fiasco certainly backed up that statement.
It reminded me
of Baghdad, with the Sunnis on the one side and the Shias on the other, both on
the verge of civil war, and then we ‘liberators’ decide to do something mad
like hang Sunni leader Saddam Hussein in a shed and then wonder why everybody
goes berserk in response.
It also wasn’t
a great week for the other powerful female leader Cersei who was verbally
pulverised by the infuriated uncle Kevan who came across as an embittered
cantankerous old relative at Christmas dinner, bit sloshed on the sherry, riled
because he’s been given the wrong type of sprouts and has ended up causing a scene
at the table and flounced out the room. It appears uncle Kev cares not for the
game or the prosperity of the Lannister dynasty, something Cersei will now have
to deal with.
It’s not
easy at the top and this week’s episode certainly showed the main leaders in
the show going through problematic and transformative experiences in their
individual quests.
Do any of
the leaders appear to have cracked the art of ruling?
Is it better
to be feared like the Mad King, Stannis and Joffers? I’m not sure.
Is it better
to be loved like Jon Snow? You’d have to say at the moment…it looks that way.
But being
loved by the people is one thing, maintaining that love is quite another. Snow
has the adoration of the Night’s Watch, and yet a few wrong words, a couple of
rookie errors and that love might just evaporate.
We saw how quickly elements
of the Night’s Watch turned on Mormont in Craster’s Keep, and Jon’s already got
Ser Alliser Thorne and Mr Slynt ready to spread dissent when the opportune
moment arises.
Jon will not
worry about potentially losing the loyalty of his men, like uncle Kevan he
appears to be one of the few characters not interested in playing the intrigues of the game.
Let’s just hope for his sake, and the sake of the North, Snow’s leadership
style of love over fear continues to hold the loyalty of the men of the Watch, for
many, many, more nights to come...
