The Dangers of a Visual Age

Perhaps because I have never been a big one for idolatry, especially of my fellow human beings, I never was convinced by the cult of Aung San Suu Kyi. Mind you, I have always suspended my disbelief for Vaclav Havel - while I know he liked a drink and a fag and who knows what else, the clarity of his thought was over bowling.

The difference between the two leaders has been articulated better than I can by Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch, quoted in an article about Aung San Suu Kyi in the current issue of the New Yorker:

"Havel came to his position by saying a lot, by being a moral voice. Aung San Suu Kyi didn’t say much at all. She was a moral symbol, and we read into that symbol certain virtues, which turned out to be wrong when she actually began speaking."

Words, not pictures - that is the way to pick your leaders.