Presidents and emperors

“The group is not stupid. We’re not giving away all of that stuff for free? Leadership, alpha comes at a cost. You see, we expect, that when danger threatens us from the outside, that the person who’s actually stronger; the person who’s better fed…we expect them to run towards the danger to protect us!”

– Simon Sinek

Why is Michael Cohen willing to lie to the Senate regarding Trump’s Moscow project?
Why do Italian crime families put la famiglia above all else?
Why are some people – bless those courageous and stupid-enough souls – willing to charge into battle and die for their King and why do we detest them for having the courage we do not?

In this manner, the Japanese and their dedication to their emperor between the first and second millennia exemplifies this notion. Because deeply rooted within their culture – perhaps their very gene pool itself – is the visceral urge to protect their ideal at all costs; the infamous seppuku tradition and their WWII kamikaze pilots serve as ample historical evidence. At a glance, the Japanese appear eminently kind, due to their impeccable standard for respect and politeness. However, it shouldn’t take much connecting-of-the-dots to apprehend that nothing further could be from the truth; indeed their civilization must have evolved or became self-aware in regards to the necessity for this superficial formality, in order to maintain societal cohesion.

The emperor is merely a material vessel for that ideal. So, there is something to be said about protecting him. They are entrusting all that is good in the world and expect the emperor (or the king) to carry that forward through his actions and into the next generation. It is a very heavy cost indeed. It takes a very rare character and ego (one may levy all sorts of criticisms at Donald Trump but not having an ego would, I imagine, not be one of them) to shoulder this task and not be completely crushed at the mere thought of bearing it.

We are even willing to overlook a little bit of corruption – for we know that even the best, most worthy of us aren’t infallible to sin:

“And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains… an unuprooted small corner of evil.”

– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

For that, even the most cowardly man may willingly choose to sacrifice his own life – and that is nothing to dismiss; indeed it may be the most accurate definition of courage we know of.

“Some scouts’ lives are more valuable than others, only those dumb enough to acknowledge that join us.”

– Levi Ackerman