Coincidentally, the essay I’m writing this week is whether or not it is necessary for a good king to be a good person, which relates to what John’s latest ramble (I mean, um, well executed and coherent blog post. Only kidding with you John, heh heh) was about.

The constitution of a great leader involves many aspects. Lately, I’ve come to realize that an important trait to have is to have good rhetoric in order to emotionally engage the people you are addressing. An over used example of a person who used rhetoric to his advantage would be Hitler.

I wish I had good rhetorical skills so everyone I talk to will think I’m always right, even if I’m absolutely wrong.

Me: Good friends, sweet lovers, I stand before you today to speak of the ignorance we have lived under. Do not rush in a sudden wave of revolt. We should take this ignorance to our advantage to educate those in the dark. They don’t know about our private grieves, but it’s time to make it plain and blunt to them. I love rice, and you love rice, and this is something you and I both know. The plain fact is, rice grows under the sun. Now friends, do not stir from what I have to say next – the sun, as we all know is yellow. But where I the sun, and the sun me, there is only the colour yellow. Give rise to your spirits and put these words on your tongue: people say Asians are yellow because we need the yellow sun to grow rice, which we eat a lot of.

Friend: That makes absolutely no sense.

You guys get the point.

But being rhetorical doesn’t answer whether or not it’s important for a good king to be a good person. My personal thought on this is ‘no.’ You can’t be a good person and a good king at the same time.

Fictional Example: (because I can’t think of a non-fictional example…)

Henry from Shakespeare’s Henry V. Henry is good at manipulating people’s thoughts and minds, even that of his enemies, which if you think about it, is not a very nice thing for someone to do. But Henry is heroic, although ruthless. He abandons his friends, and puts them to death in order to uphold the law. He knows he is responsible for an entire nation, so he puts his personal feelings and conscience aside to do what is best.

Being a good king means you might be lonely since your position will keep you from being a likable man.

So that’s my two cents. Tomorrow is the start of lent, and although I’m not Catholic, I am going to be giving up meat for ethical reasons. I can already tell this is going to be painful. I’m going to gorge on roast beef as a farewell meal.