Fiddlers deserve more respect

What is so awful about fiddling while a city burns anyway? Representation pic

I have been thinking about the Roman emperor Nero for much of the past year. I'm not sure why, because there is absolutely no connection between his reputation as an ineffectual leader and the supremely competent men and women currently steering our country towards overwhelming levels of progress and prosperity. And yet, I can't seem to get him out of my mind - his over-inflated ego, complete lack of concern for people he was supposed to care about, even his documented poor taste. Why a dead leader written off as a failure would occupy my mind is something I have no explanation for.

Historians have long dismissed the myth of an uncaring Nero fiddling while a fire ravaged his city in 64 AD. They point out, for instance, that the fiddle didn't even exist at the time. There are other reasons offered to debunk the story, but they probably won't stick because we usually tend to accept colourful fiction over staid fact a lot easier. I also believe the larger point that gets lost in the telling of that particular tale is how powerful leaders are often underappreciated for their lack of empathy, when they should be congratulated for this quality instead.

What is so awful about fiddling while a city burns anyway? What was Nero supposed to do? Join the firefighters? His only fault was not being smart enough to focus on public relations. If he had taken credit for parts of the city that didn't burn instead, we would have had a different mental picture of what he was like, all these centuries later. His only fault was being born in the wrong country, at the wrong time. The right time for leaders like Nero is today, when they can openly hide their failures by focusing on non-existent success stories instead.
If Nero were alive today, he would undeniably have focused on self-promotion over everything else. I can see him now, insisting on his visage plastered at every corner of Rome, renaming schemes put into place by previous emperors, starting a Nero Cares Fund for the poor to divert funds to aristocratic friends or towards pet renovation projects. I can see him order a group of photographers to capture him on camera, fire extinguisher in hand, bravely fighting a small token fire set up in a corner of his palace to let his subjects know he was right there in the fray with them.

The way I see it, there's nothing wrong with narcissism in a leader. Yes, it may imply the existence of deep insecurities, but that doesn't necessarily mean the leader in question should be mocked. I am pretty sure Nero wouldn't be laughed at in today's India because we have evolved into a country that finally supports a lack of commitment and integrity in our political leaders when we see it. We don't focus on these missing qualities because we know there are bigger battles to be fought against potential enemies of the state. We may not have jobs or enough money for fuel, but our priorities are finally in order, for which we should all be grateful.

We need leaders who talk a lot more even if they don't do much. Some may reject this as a recipe for disaster, but the results of following this approach have been obvious to everyone in India for almost a decade now. It is clearly an experiment that has worked, even if the results may not be immediately obvious to anyone insisting on facts or figures. Facts are overrated, and we should sometimes look beyond obvious signs to find the barely discernible truths hidden deep beneath.

A leader who cares about himself alone is what today's India needs, and we should encourage anyone interested in politics to spend a little more time studying failed leaders from the past. Their only mistake was not shouting loud enough, which is why their reputations are all due for re-evaluation. To fiddle while your country burns is an act of bravery that needs to be called out as such.

Nero is not a failure in my book. If anything, he is a tragic, misunderstood figure, a pompous man with no morality, intelligence, integrity, compassion, or empathy, who simply wanted what was best for himself. He is a role model we should aspire to and, if he were alive and living in India today, he would fit right into the role of a politician. I'm sure he could be a perfect Prime Minister.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira

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The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper