Leo Tolstoy and George W Bush

In the first epilogue of War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy wrote

Chance, millions of chances, give him power, and all men, as if by agreement, cooperate to confirm that power. ...

Book Title: War and Peace. Contributors: Henry Gifford - editor, Aylmer Maude - transltr, Louise Maude - transltr, Leo Tolstoy - author. Publisher: Oxford University Press. Place of Publication: Oxford. Publication Year: 1998. Page Number: 1215.

I think that we on the Left have succumbed to the Great Man in History theory by not considering on the forces that lie behind George W Bush (and John W Howard). There is a significant number of people who have projected onto these leaders their own ideas. This mass movement came into being independent of GWB and JWH. These leaders are pandering to this mass movement of malcontents and hot-heads.

The quote from Tolstoy refers to the innumerable chances that got Napoleon to where achieved supreme power in France. He took many risks and these paid off against the odds. Even his failure (loss of an entire army and fleet in Egypt) did not stop his rise to power. Monumental incompetence was just a stepping stone to success.

There was a mass movement in France who wanted Napoleon as their leader to do their bidding.

... The strength of the justification of the man who stands at the head of the movement grows with the increased size of the group. During the ten-year preparatory period this man had formed relations with all the crowned heads of Europe. The discredited rulers of the world can oppose no reasonable ideal to the insensate Napoleonic ideal of glory and grandeur. One after another they hasten to display their insignificance before him. ... the Pope ... utilizes religion for the aggrandizement of the great man. It is not Napoleon who prepares himself for the accomplishment of his role, so much as all those round him who prepare him to take on himself the whole responsibility for what is happening and has to happen. There is no step, no crime or petty fraud he commits, which in the mouths of those around him is not at once represented as a great deed. ...

p. 1215, ibid. Emphasis Mine

This quote points out what is happening now especially with all the scandals that are surrounding GWB. The present pope has not followed his predecessor but there are other religious leaders who are prepared to do this promotion of GWB as a great leader. In promoting and glorifying GWB, they are promoting and glorifying themselves.