A reader’s perspective on medieval and modern codes of leadership

Russian President Vladimir Putin & President of the Republic of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Photo Credit: BRICS Twitter

Letter from Mr Anton.

Dear GC,

I went through your latest publication on your site dated 8 January 2025, of which you have mentioned ruthless leaders like Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump and substantiating their actions with central figures in the medieval times like Julius Caesar, King Arthur. My view is  that I find this comparison akin to apples and oranges.

During the medieval era, there was a lack of strong law enforcement. Access to weapons was extremely easy.  The harsh economic conditions at the time also had aggravated people to resort to lethal force. There were a lot of blood feuds where family vendettas was a widespread prevalence where a family member would kill another family member, leading to retaliation by the other member of the family thus creating a cycle of violence. It is completely irrelevant to justify the actions of leaders today with the leaders during the medieval times when we now have law and order to keep the world at peace.

Your writer is correct when he say leaders like King Arthur was a gentleman. He was one during his period because he was seen as a noble hero when he killed Mordred and led the fellowship of knights at his court in Camelot. Killing was permissible because it was regarded as a social norm where violence was often seen as a measure to settle disputes especially when it involves honor and reputation.

Today, we no longer live with that code because we now have law and order. With the birth of law and order, the code to being a gentleman has also changed. A leader who continues to follow the old gentleman code (e.g killing), is now seen as a murderer, a rapist, a dictator. They are no longer seen as a gentleman because they have violated law and order. They have gone against the social norm. They fail to adapt to the current social norm and continue to live in the past thinking they are living in the medieval times.

Leaders like Vladimir Putin who's war has taken 12,300 innocent lives including women and children or Xi JinPing's ongoing human rights crimes against the 11.5 million Uyghurs and other minority groups in China. If such people are regarded as a gentleman then there should be room for people like Venezualan President Nicolas Maduro, or North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or even the famous colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar be covered in your future articles. 

A gentleman should follow the ethics of reciprocity where everyone deserves a fair treatment and the duty and responsibility to ensure justice for others.

There are 2 types of rules in the philosophy of reciprocity which are the golden rule and the silver rule. The golden rule is simply a rule that says that individuals should treat others in the same manner they wish to be treated. The silver rule is pretty much the inverse, where you should not treat others in a manner which they would not wish to be treated in. Both rules make up what is known as the ethics of reciprocity...it is the very concept of human dignity and equality. The ethics of reciprocity is one of the golden rules for becoming a modern gentleman.

The world today that we live in today is a very mean spirited world so we as the modern gentlemen who abide by the gentleman's code, must respond with sensitivity, humour and intelligence not through war, pain and suffering, e.g. war in ukraine, war in the Palestine, human rights abuse (China), threats for colonialism e.g. President Trump on acquiring Greenland, Canada and Panama, etc).