Flattery has a long history across the world. The main hub of sycophancy was the royal courts of various states. Kings used to love being surrounded by courtiers, sycophants, and flatterers. The primary job of these flatterers was to praise the king, repeatedly declare his greatness, and promote his superiority. Through this process, the king also enjoyed a certain self-satisfaction, which sometimes turned into arrogance. The issue of flattery was not limited to the state or the king; in the context of our country, it was also prevalent among landlords and wealthy individuals. In fact, as wealth, property, power, and prestige grew, sycophants and flatterers appeared—this is the law of nature.
However, flattery exists outside the world of royalty in the flow of ordinary life as well. Stories of flattery between subordinates and office chiefs, aspirants to prominence with established individuals, and the asset-less with the wealthy are well known. At the collective level, the dimensionality, depth, and impact of flattery in the realms of politics and economics are extensive, with its political economy being more relevant.
Let's start with the politics of flattery; more precisely, a discussion can begin with the flattery of politics. In this context, two observations are extremely pertinent.
One, the politics of our country is largely the politics of flattery—the prominence of flattery is extreme among top leaders and middle-level leaders, between large and small leaders, or between a leader and a worker. Two, there is a dynamism to the politics of flattery. The matter is not static—this process changes the nature of the relationship between the flatterer and the flattered, altering the overall context.
One of the objectives of the politics of flattery is to gain favour—political favour, advantage favour, monetary favour, power favour. Securing various kinds of advantages is a primary goal of the politics of flattery. Needless to say, the attempt to gain such favour leads to competition among flatterers—who can secure more. This unintended competition may create a backdrop of resentment among the flatterers.
However, one of the significant dimensions of the politics of flattery is making the flattered leader autocratic. Through false accolades, empty praises, sycophantic followers try to give the flattered leader the false notion that he is all-knowing, the greatest, and the ultimate authority. Such a process makes the leader autocratic. We have witnessed such incidents repeatedly in the political past of Bangladesh. By making the leader autocratic, followers also receive a license for autocratic practices, allowing them to exploit common people. One of the objectives of the politics of flattery is autocracy, a process we have observed reflecting multiple times in Bangladesh.
This process of autocracy gradually distances the leader from the people. The flatterers never convey the real truth to the flattered leader and only present fantastical progress and improvements. Being gradually deprived of reality and distancing from it is one of the key dimensions of the politics of flattery. As followers also turn autocratic and flattery becomes pervasive, the situation turns into the saying ‘as the master says, the followers echo a hundredfold.’ Flatterers put such a blindfold on the eyes of the flattered leader that he cannot see reality, only what the flatterers want him to see.
In politics, recognising enemies is easy, but recognising allies is not so simple. The politics of flattery makes identifying allies even more challenging. Flatterers are the greatest adversaries of healthy politics because they disguise themselves as allies and make politics non-democratic. Yet it is essential to make politics positive for the common people by identifying and coordinating with allies. However, this becomes impossible due to the politics of flattery, where flatterers cause the maximum damage by disguising as allies to a political leader.
One of the features of people-centric and democratic politics is the creation, understanding, and promotion of an objective political culture and values. Needless to say, there is no place for objectivity in the politics of flattery. Hence, the political culture and values that take place in such a situation are individual-centered or party-centered. The ultimate result of the politics of flattery is its continuous decline and ultimate explosion.
By creating autocracy and centralising extreme power, this politics gives rise to certain disaster and crisis in the whole process, causing rapid social polarisation. At some point, conflict becomes inevitable and leads to an explosion of the entire structure. Starting from mass movements, at some point, it initiates the collapse of the whole process. Those who are the bearers of the politics of flattery should not forget that they are creating their own death trap.
Along with politics, the realm of the economics of flattery is also vast and coherent. The core idea of the economics of flattery is to gain various financial and economic benefits through sycophancy. In this process, the interests of both the flatterer and the flattered are involved. The interest of the flatterers is obvious. The economic interest of the flattered lies in maintaining authority over wealth and prestige by sacrificing some wealth to the associate class, which will later help the flattered to encircle new wealth.
One particular dimension of the economics of flattery is economic autocracy. Economic autocracy comes hand in hand with political autocracy, where the flattered leader and his flatterers regularly disregard economic regulations and discipline. Within this framework, economic visibility, accountability, and responsibility become secondary. In recent times, we have repeatedly observed such tendencies in Bangladesh's economy.
Attempting to make the flattered leader the sole and supreme authority is not always easy. Often it requires the use of terror and arms. Therefore, naturally, one of the side dimensions of the economics of flattery is creating an atmosphere of fear, terror, and armament. For this, funding is necessary, which comes from various sources.
The wastage of public funds is a notable aspect of the economics of flattery. Consequently, flatterers regularly organie expensive events, stages, arches adorned with numerous flowers and gifts. Naturally, funds are necessary for this, and usually, public money is used for such purposes. It needs to be mentioned that special interest groups also frequently fund such events with abundant money to secure future benefits.
In the economics of flattery, the continuous economic expansion of one class and the financial decline of common people constantly occur. Hence, class inequality and economic disparity are closely connected to the economics of flattery. In this economic realm, flatterers and associate classes gradually increase their economic assets and prestige. On the other hand, the condition of common people continues to deteriorate economically. Such an ongoing polarisation acts like a ticking time bomb for the future.
The ultimate statement of the politics and economics of flattery is that sycophants have no permanent lord, loyalty, or commitment; they only have permanent interests. Therefore, the change of lord or leader is a dynamic aspect of this politics and economics. It is the flatterers who pave the way for the downfall of leaders and search for new lords following the fall of old ones.
#Selim Jahan is a former director of the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
*The opinions expressed are the author's own.
#The article, originally written in Bangla print and online editions, has been rewritten in English by Rabiul Islam