Potentates surrounded themselves with eunuchs for a number of reasons. One primary purpose was to assure that the “help” didn’t get too frisky with leader’s harem. Another reason was to maintain a bureaucracy and clerical or administrative staff that wouldn’t be distracted from their appointed duties by carnal desires. It seemed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement (unless you were a eunuch) because the system survived for centuries in various cultures throughout the globe. In today’s political environment there are some who would consider the ancient relationship to be barbaric or, at the very least, incredibly backward. But…politically speaking, nothing has changed despite the enlightened leadership of the 21st Century. Even here…in the United States of America … we have a modernized version of potentates and eunuchs.
Although the Constitution of the United States was designed to place the power of the nation in the hands of the people, we have evolved into a barely-recognizable distortion of the Framers’ original purpose. Numerous fiefdoms have emerged and each is the playground for various potentates and oligarchs. Congress, the Administration, Supreme Court and the countless bureaucracies all have become fertile ground for satraps and potentates. In historical times the eunuchs were key members of the bureaucracy, but in modern days the people have become political eunuchs as their power hungry petty rulers abuse them. The historical role of eunuchs has been transformed into one of anatomically-deficient potentates. Every member of Congress, the House and the Senate, has carved out a little niche of power, and the members of their staffs and the committee staffs each has a little power fiefdom.
You may accuse me of hyperbole, but if you consider how local officials and their staffs jealously guard their turf and protocols, you can extrapolate the same attitudes (on steroids) to the state and federal apparatchiks. Though they may fill the roles formerly held by eunuchs, they have in the current situation developed into mini-potentates. If you as a taxpaying citizen seek to resolve an issue or receive an answer, you may be treated as if you were the lowliest of serfs….unworthy of the satrap’s undivided attention. You are often made to feel as if you are an unwelcome intruder who disrupts the important business of the bureaucracy. You may feel as if you’re the skunk at the picnic. Private enterprise has an institutional investment in pleasing the customer and making her feel welcome. When we encounter someone at a business who is less than helpful or rude, we may react by taking our business to a competitor. Government agencies have no competition, and when we find someone who is particularly polite or helpful, we are surprised.
Eunuchs were notoriously disdainful of those who were beneath their exalted stations. They generally reserved their best behavior for the potentates, their senior counselors and the royal family. So it is today as many of our public service eunuchs treat their ethically-challenged political masters fawningly while reluctantly performing their tasks for the commoners. Some might argue that the real eunuchs in American government are the elected officials. They appear to lack testosterone and courage while constantly dodging important decisions. The bureaucracy, on the other, has become emboldened and dictatorial because of the Congressional and legislative practices of passing enabling legislation. This type of legislative action merely lays out the framework and the overall purpose of the act and empowers the bureaucracy to “flesh it out” by writing rules, regulations and protocols. In essence the eunuchs call the shots, and the potentates fiddle and fuss. Their roles have been reversed.
So, in the final analysis our public servants who fill the roles of eunuchs behave as if they’re potentates, and the leadership while living the lifestyles of satraps actually have melted into unprincipled eunuchs. There is one glaring exception to this observation in today’s political landscape. Our President, Barrack Hussein Obama, has assumed the persona of a despotic potentate. He barks orders and expects others to jump in compliance. When they do not readily yield to his demands, he expresses his frustration and anger like one would expect from a tin-pot dictator. We can imagine him screaming “off with their heads” in another era. In reality, though, he represents the eunuch class much more effectively than he does the potentates. His quirkiness, anger and petulance are more fitting for a functionary than they are for a true leader. Perhaps he has earned the operative title of “The Eunuch Wannabe Tyrant.” I realize that belittling him in this manner may be a bit over the top because he has, indeed, generated and motivated enough activity that has radically damaged our republic. He has achievements that would be envied by any deranged potentate and gleefully enforced by any power-hungry state eunuch.
In a real sense Obama has become the perfectly merged embodiment of the eunuch and the potentate. He is an historical anachronism who has through his perfidy managed to undermine and dislodge critical elements of the social and political fabric of the nation. His petty nature combined with his grandiose socialist schemes has driven him to shake the basic foundations of our country. Those who preceded him prepared the stage, but His Eminent Potentate the Eunuch-in-Chief has dropped the curtain and is playing the leading role.
