At the top

Some time after Montaigne, also Francis Bacon (1561-1626) has written a book with essays. Some say that he has been inspired to do so by Montaigne’s Essays, but this is not certain. Anyway, like Montaigne’s essays, they are still widely read. Insiders say that they have been written in beautiful English, but this is difficult to judge by me as a non-native speaker. What I know is that they have been written in a clear style. They are much easier to read and understand than Montaigne’s essays. On average, they are also much shorter. Like Montaigne Bacon treats a wide range of subjects, like truth, death, revenge, love, atheism, travel, prophecies, ambition, etc., but no military subjects (which you find among Montaigne’s earlier essays, though not among the later ones). Much of what Bacon writes is still worth consideration for the modern reader and applicable to the present world.
Take, for example, the eleventh essay, titled “Greatness of place”. With “place” Bacon means “a position with power and responsibility in some enterprise which may be governmental, military or commercial”, as the Glossary to the edition of Bacon’s essays used here explains, and the place is “great”, because it “is famous or conspicuous or the like.” We could think here of the position of political leaders, CEOs and the like. Such leaders should be [my words, for Bacon writes “are”] “servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business”. I write “should be”, for I often have the impression that they are servants of themselves, but that’s another matter, which I don’t want to discuss now. Anyway, being servants, these leaders, so Bacon, “have no freedom in their persons, in their actions, or in their times”, which makes it strange that someone wants to become a leader, also because the way to the top is laborious and takes much pains. However, once there, many high placed people refuse to give up their positions when the time to do so would be there: “[T]hey don’t want to retire when there is reason for them to do so … in old age and sickness…” Indeed, especially in authoritarian states (but not only there), we see that leaders often stick to their place, “although they thereby offer age to scorn.” Not always, wisdom grows with the years. However, and that is a related problem Bacon points to, people at the top tend to lose self-knowledge and become “strangers to themselves”. They depend for their “self”-knowledge on how others see them, and, I want to add, then they are vulnerable to flattery and emotional manipulation.
After this “description” of those at the top, Bacon goes on to a series of advices for them. I think this is the part of the essay leaders can learn the most from. Learn from others that had the same position as you have now, from what they did well and wrong, and be an example to others, so Bacon. And then – and I think that this is especially presently important, as it is often ignored – “Try to make your course regular, so that men may know beforehand what they can expect from you;·… don’t noisily raise questions of jurisdiction. … Preserve … the rights of inferior places; and think it more honour to direct them from above than to be busy in all of them. Embrace and invite helps and advice concerning the carrying out of the duties of your place; and when folk bring you information, do not drive them away as meddlers, but hear in good part what they have to say.” I have added italics in my quotation, and I think I don’t need to explain which world leader I have in mind…
And so the essay goes on. It’s not very long, and I advise you to read it yourself, since it helps you better understand the behaviour of some world leaders today and what they do wrong. However, I want yet to pick out a few passages and remarks by Bacon that I find highly relevant in the present world situation. Bacon mentions four vices of authority: delays, corruption, roughness, and facility [being too flexible]. I think that the problem of delays and corruption needs no comment. By mentioning facility, Bacon is afraid that it makes the leader vulnerable to trickery and favouritism. About roughness, he says: “[S]everity breeds fear, but roughness breeds hate. Even reproofs from authority ought to be grave, and not taunting.”
Some leaders think that it is necessary to comment on what their predecessors did. Bacon does not advise against doing so, but he says: “Use the memory of your predecessor fairly and tenderly; for if you do not, that is a debt that will surely be paid when you are gone.”

Bacon’s essay “Greatness of place” ends here and so here I should end my blog, too. However, I can’t resist adding yet two quotations from Bacon’s next essay “Boldness”:
“Just as there are mountebanks—itinerant quacks—for the natural body, so are there mountebanks for the politic body; men that undertake great cures, and perhaps have been lucky in two or three experiments, but have no grounding in science, and therefore cannot hold out.”
Then follows a warning by Bacon against people who cannot keep their promises: “So these bold men, when they have promised great matters and failed most shamefully, if they have the perfection of boldness they will slight it over, and change course with no more ado.” As if nothing happened and nothing went wrong, they go on.

Think before you act and be considerate, but those at the top think that they are almighty.