We can easily measure the time it takes for water filled from the purest spring to spoil: between 3 to 7 days. But how do we measure the time of a person who “rots” in power? It’s no more than 3 to 6 months — the time of “rotting” in power in a country lacking control and accountability. In other words, within the first 100 days and at most 200 days of power, people begin to feel less influenced by others’ opinions, get accustomed to privileges and consider them deserved and non-negotiable, and lose the empathy they once showed without reserve. Dacher Keltner’s “Power Paradox,” where good people who rise to power start to change, explains this well. Many leaders or top officials come with big, loud promises, but within a few days, weeks, or sometimes in the “best” cases months, signs of arrogance, autocracy, capture of institutions, and refusal to step down begin to emerge.
How does power rot?
At most, within 6 months, if there is no serious institutional control and transparency, heavy winds of nepotism, personal interests, economic interests, deviation from principles, arrogance, and arrogance begin to blow. Naturally, the smell isn’t noticed quickly because the propaganda perfume is fed just as strongly as moral and material corruption. If you think about it, the symptoms of political decay are so obvious wherever you turn: Pride turns into a state system, criticism is despised, institutions are captured by “trusted” people, public speech is multiplied by zero, servility and loss of dignity for career advancement are promoted. Don’t tell me you haven’t met at least once in your life an ignoramus who, after six months in position, speaks to you as if they discovered the theory of relativity… of power. And you are forced to listen! That’s the rot!
When does it rot completely?
When it decomposes so much that you can’t even smell it? When it starts to believe that “he” is the state, that without “him” everything will end like in the age of dinosaurs, that his leaving will be a cataclysm and there is no Noah to save it. It is the time when the ruler no longer feels shame for not serving the people, but on the contrary, is self-satisfied as a ruler, as a doer of all things as he wishes without asking anyone, or simply by servilely “serving the commander” according to the case. This is total decomposition, which is no longer dangerous for them, but on the contrary, for the country. The change of face from servant of the people to pasha of the people takes a few months; the consequences left by these spahis, kaymaks, and pashas.
Is the people fond of dictatorship?
The last elections, where very few aligned behind one or another “dictator” ruling for 26 or 34 years, don’t show this. They rather show insecurity, fatigue, and desire for “calm,” regardless that this is oppression. Freedom is out of the question because, despite how nice it sounds, it is tiring; you must hold positions, principles, you must speak, you must endure some small sacrifice, responsibility, disappointment after disappointment from people and expectations. We leave freedom aside, because theoretically, we have never really had it.
How does the “rotten one” relate to the citizen?
Quite simply, even quite cheaply. Principles and ideas have been thrown somewhere in a trash bin; what dominates is: “Do I get anything? Do they give me anything?” Not much — a job, a building permit, some economic aid, a tender, a handful of euros, a legalization, a promise, a project… and here, the “rotten” one of yesterday, even in your mouth, today becomes a “good man” helping you. This is moral corruption, much scarier than financial corruption, because it infects the whole population, not just power, and then the population feels indebted to power.
Were we born servile and powerless?!
I don’t believe it. I don’t believe a people are born that way. But they can be educated as such. Whole generations who for centuries have been taught to keep their heads high, listen to what the leader says, follow him even into the abyss, or lower their heads and redden their hands from clapping when leaders speak to them, or wait under the leader’s balcony for a piece of food to be thrown to them, do not perceive freedom as a right but as a risk. Let’s add to this the “nationalist” and regional behavior of the great savior and his clones spread everywhere, repeating to boredom that “he” is the protector of the nation, “he” did miracles, “he” established order and built the state, and frightened people whisper among themselves “at least there is order, remember how it was before.” This is the surrender of freedom. But just as people get used to dictatorship and real dictators, or copies — small or big — they can also learn to no longer accept them. Starting from the clones in the periphery. It will take time, courage, awareness, and maybe a small hole in the wall of fear, to let a little light in.
Arizaj është gazetar me një eksperiencë të gjatë në median shqiptare.
Ai ka drejtuar një sërë gazetash të përditshme dhe së fundi i fokusuar në zhanrin e analizave.
Edmond Arizaj është diplomuar pranë Universitetit të Tiranës në degën Gazetari.
