Viewpoints
Triumphalism
By +Oscar V. Cruz, JCD
THE word as such does not even appear in standard dictionaries. There are terms such as “triumph”, “triumphal”, and even “triumphalist”. But the word “triumphalism” seems illusive. Yet, the truth conveyed by the term is not hard to decipher and wherefore not exactly unknown in nature and implications. Plain and briefly said, it means the posture of omniscience, the stance of righteousness, the feeling of omnipotence. Add hereto the feeling of some kind of immunity from error – and the picture is more complete. But any moral who dares adopt any kind of the said perceived glorious self-attribution, simply wallows in megalomania – if not downright pitiful clinical hallucination.
The sad and saddening phenomenon of triumphalist personalities is a fact commonly observed among certain politicians – especially those who hold high and supposedly exalted leadership offices in government for one dubious reason or another. It is not really hard to identify them – taking into account the following more common and revealing composite behavioral pattern they exhibit: They are distinctly haughty and proud. They act as if everybody else is their footstool. They talk much but accomplish little. More: They are great in self-service, in self-esteem, and self-admiration.
The truth is that triumphalist leaders are big misfortunes to their subjects. The same are saturated with topnotch personal confidence. The supposedly public servants feel precisely entitled to complete and willing public submission. The latter behaves like gods of some kind – and therefore also feels entitled to adoration of some kind as well. Listening to others, willingness to learn from others, admitting the possibility of mistake – none of these is compatible with anyone wallowing in triumphalism.
What is even worse is when certain individuals – for their own benefit and security – in fact praise and affirm to high heavens such leaders in already high public offices. They are a category of pitiful “rah-rah boys” who feed on the over-bloated ego of their “idols” basically to advance their own selfish interests. Meantime, the sure and eventual victims of all such orchestrated shenanigans are poor, the helpless, and miserable citizens.
But whether they like it or not, irrespective of whether they accept it or not, time is their big and non-conquerable enemy. Time is linear. It goes on and on. It stops for no one. And it settles the score as a matter of fact. So is it that in observance of the principle “What goes up eventually goes down,” such personalities – incarnations of egoism – who once felt invincible, ultimately fall from their pneumatic pedestals. History is the unimpeachable witness to this equalizing reality the world over.
Question: Who in this country is/are afflicted with “VOT” – Virus of Triumphalism.
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