Matías Koch – Entry. No 1 (On Tolstoy-Greer)

I believed that Tolstoy is trying to separate the history of mankind in two ways. One is the historian’s point of view, in which all of the great movements were only made by the strong and influential leaders. And the other one, his chosen one, believes that only the circumstances rather than the ideas of these strong leaders, really decide which course will the humanity history follows. By this idea, we must ask ourselves: Does decisions are made by the leaders or by circumstances? If Tolstoy is right, these means that the kings weren’t really that powerful, because the needed, or follow the citizens desires. I must personally disagree with Tolstoy, because they are so many examples of kings going against the citizen’s rights and desires, that they cannot be listed. Though, it is right to say that king’s decisions were most certainly shaped by those opinions of the people. Opinion and circumstances do matter, but they aren’t decisive.
In modern times, these circumstances changed. And we must accept that now a day’s, social media have a strong power in politics and decision making. But it is also true, that the people who are in a position of power can also use this power of speech to modify and also persuade the citizens to take the positions they want them to take. So this generates a confrontation of the people that believe the rhetoric of politicians, and those who rather differ from this official speech. In Latin American countries, this is a common thing. People who aren’t really informed about the historical circumstances can easily fall in the lies and manipulation of the powerful leaders, which generate a confrontation scenario between both groups. So instead of becoming people against government, it usually becomes people against people, which lead to politicians making whatever they want to do.
So the manipulation of speech is now a day’s one of the most important part of politicians, which can easily give them the advantage to make the real scenario of politics confusing, and within this confusion, take advantage. But it is also true, that this can work until one point. Sometimes the lies aren’t enough, and this is when riots occur, making the system collapse, and putting the future of the country in hands of the prevalent group of citizens.
I don’t mean to be pessimist, but I don’t totally agree with Tolstoy and his view of human freedom as a matter of social and historical change. Some men are an important part of history, that cannot be denied, but the truth around humanity and history is that these are a little few ones. The large part of human beings isn’t really important to history. What can one man and his believes really achieve in now a day’s political and social realities. Most of political protest now a days last for short amounts of time, and aren’t really taken in seriously. The truth is that people tend to forget the mistakes of the leaders, and tend to accept as a way of failure, that some things cannot be change. It would be really comfortable to stop the corruption and the wrong politics from governments now a day, but the truth is that in most cases this doesn’t happen.
I don’t mean to be pessimist, but I cannot conceive the idea of history shaped by the majority voice, but rather the voice of the leaders. In some cases, sure, the citizens tend to achieve their goals and can managed to change and take historical movements in their own hands, but unfortunately, this isn’t that common.