Kristian’s Random Ramblings
This blog doesn’t have any coherence whatsoever; I shall just write whatever my mind has for the moment — its close to Overdrive.
It’s just after lunchtime and my stomach’s STILL protesting my fast. I’m still following the Ramadan, and its my 4th year now methinks. I love the idea of discipline in this experiential paradigm shift.
Anyway, I came across a Greek saying on the book "Ogilvy on advertising," and it goes like this:
"When Pericles spoke, the people said, ‘How well he speaks.’ But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, ‘Let us march!’"
Such is the power of communications; such is the power of heart. Victor Hugo once said, "Nothing else in the world . . . not all the armies . . . is so powerful as an idea whose time has come. " Imagine, empires had been carved out of nothingness just because of the few illuminating souls of men. And our course in history has changed forever.
Genghis Kahn, for a point in his life, was enslaved by a rival tribe. By sheer guts and luck he escaped and carved the world’s largest contiguous empire. He would constantly go to the mountains and "counsel with the gods," asking for auspices to tell him if his path would be worth undertaking. Or whether it’s to his calling. Or perhaps he simply went up there to meditate on the possible courses of action.
Like the time when the Khwarezmian Shah Muhammed attacked his diplomatic caravan twice, he went to the mountains and meditated. After a few days, he came down with a message — that the gods promise victory over their adversaries. To my knowledge, I think he was the only conqueror that died of old age, and had the most loyal troops in the world. Cyrus the Great died in battle; Alexander the Great was poisoned; Caesar was assasinated; Qin Shih Huang Ti went nuts after listening to his quack doctors told him ingesting Mercury would extend his life.
But those leaders — they had a thing in common. They stirred the hearts and minds of men. The fueled imaginations and contributed to their already legendary status as living men. They made men rise up and follow.
Will we be producing Great men as those in the past? We ever increasingly need them so in the present. We need to march to our destinies. . .
