Sycophants

“Sycophantic behaviour exists anywhere you go”.

Ben Austin
 
“In a democracy, the people choose a leader in whom they trust. Then the chosen leader says, 'Now shut up and obey me'. People and party are then no longer free to interfere in his business”

Max Weber, 'From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology
 
'It is not true that good can follow only from good and evil only from evil, but that often the opposite is true. Anyone who fails to see this is, indeed, a political infant”

 
Max Weber, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology.
 
“Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. It takes both passion and perspective … but to do that a man must be a leader, and not only a leader but a hero as well, in a very sober sense of the word. And even those who are neither leaders nor heroes must arm themselves with that steadfastness of heart which can brave even the crumbling of all hopes”.

 
Max Weber
 
A 'SYCOPHANT' is said to be a person who uses obsequious compliments to gain self serving favour or advantage from another. Such a person can be said to be a self- seeking flatterer,

For synonyms, we have such words as: boot licker; ass-kisser, hanger – on (plural: hangers – on); parasite; Philistine; leech; brown – noser; lackey; yes – man.

The word 'sycophant' traces its origin to Athens of classical times, and to the operators of the legal system. There being no police force, and with few officially appointed public prosecutors, many legal cases were brought for prosecution by private litigants.

By the 5th century B.C., the practice had become so open to abuse these 'sukophantes' or 'sykophantes' had become dishonoured for bringing unjustified complaints through obtaining payment for a successful case or being bribed to drop a case.

Some efforts were made to suppress sycophancy and these included the imposition of fines on litigants who obtained one out of five of the jury's votes or for abandoning  a case after it had begun. Besides these, Statutes of Limitation were also introduced.

In Greece, the gesture of 'showing the fig' symbolic of a 'sukon' (a vulva) was made by putting the thumb between two fingers. It was vulgar, and politicians avoided it, but encouraged their supporters to use it to mock their opponents by using it..

When the word emerged in English around 1575 from Latin: 'sycophanta', the meaning had slightly shifted  to: 'an insincere flatterer' – a perverter of the legal system..

In French a sycophant is likely to be called a 'flagomeur'; in German such a person may be called 'speiclhellecker' and in Italian, he may be a 'ruffiano', 'delatore', 'adulatore', or 'sicofante'.

A servile self – seeker may attempt to win favour by flattering influential persons; he may be a toady; a person who fawns; a grovelling, adulatory, bowing, compliant, cowering crawling, cringing, kowtowing, mealy – mouthed, obsequious, parasitic; prostrate, scraping, subservient, servile, slavish, snivelling, spineless man or woman.

Max Weber saw politics as “…the strong and slow boring of hard boards…”. To him, progress was slow and it was not a vocation that rewarded impatience. Again, to him 'progress' was slow and tough -it required compromises and was marked by disappointments.

According to Ben Austin, “Sycophantic behaviour exists anywhere you go”.

Ghana started breeding 'sycophancy' in the days of Nkrumah who was acclaimed 'The Messiah ; 'The man who never did any wrong and who never died'; 'the showboy','a man of the people' and one who could say of Busia and Danquah at a rally in Wenchi . “I don't care how many degrees that Busia and Danquah have between them. The truth is they don't know politics. Why, they are scared of you, as scared of you as the British are… Busia?…. let him keep to his sociology. As a politician, why, he's not worthy to stoop down and untie my shoestrings”. So, we doted upon Nkrumgah, and allowed him to introduce a one- party system on the land.

At the Commission of Enquiry after the overthrow of Nkrumah in 1966, one Minister stated categorically that under Nkrumah, they had become 'gaping sycophants'- stooges, puppets, flunkeys, poodles..Kofi Awonoor states in his book 'The Ghana Revolution A Background Account From A Personal .Perspective' 'The phrase ' house cleaning exercise' used by the architects of June 4th received resounding boost given the short time availlable to the interregnum, and what was achieved  by way of corrective measures that once and for all underscored the nation's moral capacity to see good as a possible alternative to chaos and confusion.To the architects of June 4th therefore, the process of house cleaning did not and could not end with handing over power to an elected civilian government. This expectation extended to the general population. And it is in the misreading of this desire, and this expectation or in its total denial that President Limann proved to be incapable of holding on to political power'. So, you see which line of argument even intellectuals could follow, especially from those who had once been victims of unexplained incarceration.

After the NPP Congress in Tamale, a die hard NPP man told a group of people: “If Afoko hadn't won, I would have voted for NDC”. My mind raced back to the days of Akufo Addo _ Alan Kyeremanten debacle in 2007 when another die – hard NPP activist declared: “If Alan doesn't win' I 'll help to scatter NPP”.

Why should the first gentleman complain. After his man had won, what did he want again? So, what should those whose candidates lost the NPP Chairmanship race do? The second gentleman did an about turn, for, instead of helping the NPP to founder, he became a staunch supporter of Nana Akufo-Addo's presidential campaign team, and was placed in a very strategic position. Newly elected NPP Chairman, Paul Afoko, has timeously advised those seeking flagbearership and their supporters to hold their fire and stop the unnecessary media war. They should  rather rally behind the new executives to reconcile and bring unity to the party.

According to Stephen R.Covey, every human has four endowments: self – awareness, conscience, independent will, and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change. What do sycophants seek? Recognition? Political chicanery (the use of subterfuge and trickery in debate or action), sophistry (specious reasoning, use of intentionally deceptive arguments) and casuistry (the use of cunning trickery) may be some politicians' stock – in -trade.

The season for sycophancy is abundantly now here with us once again. Does anyone need to advise politicians to 'Beware, the Ides of March'.?

 
Africanus Owusu Ansah.
[email protected]