�� Who are political leaders? Almost always imbeciles, but gifted with some abilities that quickly distinguish them from the masses. Manfred Kets DeVries enumerated these in good order: transforming the smile into a mask and optimism into a rule of conduct; giving their words the tone of fashionable certainty to hide the fear of the unknown and of the future; not exhibiting nuances or gradations in their choices; simplifying every difficulty in question until concluding that the choice is clear because there is no alternative; persuading the others that the flock needs a leader and that these animal comparisons standup perfectly with regards to human beings as well; always looking to the heights with the lost and entranced look that makes it clear that if there are any problems, they are in the future, because the present is completely under control; seeing in others only the reflection of their shadow, nothing personal or different, nothing to persuade or to fear.
�� The political leader is thus a being without identity, capable of appearing superficial and flexible to whatever extent is necessary. Now more than ever these qualities are important, in a period in which the market and its flexibility are at the center of every political choice. The greater one�s capacity for depersonalization, the more he advances his career and rises through the ranks of her organization. Besides, her is the function of her willingness to sacrifice the few vestiges of personality that remain to him. Thus in the total organization of institutional structures (parties, unions, political movements, but also the business or the great industrial enterprise) all personal identity disappears.
�� If subjects of a personal nature are proposed to the political leader, his great ability with words miserably flounders: the repetitive model on the basis of which she elaborates the current ideas is a great cage where imagination and feeling are sterilized until they disappear. Her dried up personality ultimately only transmits the decisive model and this is what interests those who take advantage of the organization. Thus, the shabbiness of leaders grows, since, left to themselves, they have no choice but to keep following their path to its end, toward isolation and idiocy.
�Canenero