What is genuine selflessness? [1] []
What is genuine selflessness? It seems to be difficult to answer the question as different people selflessness should be weighed with different scales. An ordinary persons selflessness must be different from a chief of state. As a chief of state, Gaddafi of Libya held his power until he was killed by his opposite people. He advocated leading a thrifty life even if he possessed the richest country in Africa. It sounded that he was selfless. But he dominated Libya until his death as if the country were his own property. He intended to let his son to inherit his power. He was a sheer dictator. He was finally executed by his people. He really walked into it.
There were many leaders of countries who regarded their countries as their own private property. It is ludicrous that most of them thought they were selfless. Their excuses were as ridiculous as their offspring pleading, that is, they thought their countries were their homes and the countries wealth certainly belonged to them. They had their own villas and private planes and trains and cars and servants and doctors, and so on, and so on. They lived and worked like emperors but they even have faces to call themselves Presidents. In a word, they could enjoy anything of their countries without paying. Such leaders even thought they were selfless because they shed their blood to the last drop for the countries. They prefer to death on their post no matter how badly their dotage ruins the countries and harms their people.
Once upon a time, the North America was ruled by Britain. The local people were exploited and depressed cruelly by the British government. By and by, the residents on the North America began to rebel against the British suzerain. The war between British army and the local militias broke out. Mr. Washington was the leader of the militias. He led American people deporting the British ruler and his army. After the war, Washington was elected the first president of the US. As a founding father of the US, Washington had adequate excuses to stay in the White House until he died. But he was really so selfless indeed that he just led the US for eight years and then left the White House.
Although Washington was a bourgeois leader he knew that the US was not his own property or his own cause, or his own ism, or his own ideal, or his own pursue. He forwardly handed over his power to the next president when his tenure was over. Why did some proletarian leaders love their powers more than they love their lives? Some proletarian leaders even bequeathed their powers to their offspring as if they were emperors and their countries their legacy or inheritance. In spite of this, they still remembered to tell their people that they were selfless so that they even contributed their kids to be the leaders as the posts were very dangerous. If they were not careful they might be beheaded by their political enemies. Beria of Soviet was the example.
