Leaders and their environment
...ay a strong proof for their argument and show how peacefulness and understanding one another can actually solve problems. Gandhi who has gone for a hunger strikes and Martin Luther King, who has given speeches of friendship and kinship, have succeeded in achieving their goals. As Gandhi says, ‘Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man’ (26). Though, their achievement progress was slow compared to those of the violent leaders, peaceful leaders left behind a reputation which is still considered and looked upon. It took both leaders years and so much energy to achieve their goal. Besides, Martin Luther King was assassinated and Gandhi suffered a lot of pain. Nevertheless, when we consider violent leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini, it is clear that their leadership was established pretty fast. It took Hitler somewhere around 5 years to establish his dictatorship and Mussolini was actually invited by the King of Italy to become the new Prime Minister of Italy. Furthermore, violent leaders are more disciplined than peaceful leaders which not only make them find followers easier but also those found followers are obedient to their leaders. As stated in the novel, ‘Prince’, by the famous Italian philosopher, Machiavelli, “great leniency” will give the opportunity to the soldiers to rise and revolt against their commanders: such an incident happened in Spain to captain Scipio (40). If Scipio had a little more discipline and authority over his army he wouldn’t have faced a revolt or a mutiny. This clearly shows that his peaceful character has weakened his authority and prevented him from establishing a strong leadership. In addition to discipline, violent leaders act more quickly to nearly every event, in order to protect their power and rights. Focusing back at the violent leaders, Hitler and Mussolini, it is easy to see their reaction to opposition. After establishing their leadership, both leaders destroyed opposition and created a single party state with unity. They showed not even a little bit of tolerance to opposition; whereas, Gandhi and King were very cooperative and tried their best to work with opposition, which did nothing but waste their time. Last but not least, the most significant aspect of a violent leadership is the stabilization of the erratic human nature. Humans are creatures that are ha...