"HEAD OF STATE" IRRATIONAL INSTITUTION

I just watched part of the CNN interview with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who surprised me with his relative eloquence and education. It's my belief that Russia may be emerging as a world leader with its fairly wealthy, liberal society not hampered by the cult of democracy. But Medvedev made one point, repeatedly, that reflected a common and ridiculous superstition: that he was a dominating influence on Russia and that Obama has a similar influence on the U.S.A.

Now, the truth of the matter is that I don't understand the historical fame of heads-of-state: in the France, England, or Egypt of hundreds of years ago the discerning scholar can see that kings and presidents were always mostly symbolic figures, that even when their individual will carried great power they very rarely had the intelligence, apostles or bureacracy to impose their will on a nation. That's why cultures didn't change much with the ascension of every new all-powerful king. The truth is that even in rather weak nations there's always enough intelligence, strength and virtue that it makes no sense for the nation to be dominantly led by one individual, or by ten. It doesn't matter if these individuals are elected by sacred democracy, which is the will of God, or if they belong to a royal family whose rule is the will of God(or Gods or Buddhas as varies by country.)

Now, when the technology, population and sophistication of the world has multiplied exponentially(in many ways,) the rationality of the powerful head of state has gone from questionable to philosophically ridiculous. It ranks up there with big-foot and Mormon theology. Rationality and intelligence call for a power structure that is diverse and directly influenced by people of intelligence from many walks of life: final decisions might be made by bodies of hundreds but never by a few men in the White House or Kremlin. It's ironic that, I, the rare disparager of absolute democracy should be the one to make this point, but I've done it before.

Rationality and virtue are my guides: not dogma or a thirst for power.