Leadership Over the Dead

Leadership Over the Dead

Prologue

Many wish to define themselves as leaders. Others as commanders. Sometimes, as commanders of nonentities — officers without an army, guides without a path, kings without a kingdom. We live in a world where the title often outweighs the substance — and power can be utterly hollow, when it is exercised over those who are spiritually and morally absent.

I have paused on this issue. Reflected in silence, through observation and self-examination. And today, with respect but also with courage, I dare to share some of those thoughts with you. Not as dogmas, but as invitations to a shared reflection — on who we are when we lead, and who we are when we follow.

Leadership Over the Dead: Achilles, Hades, and the Impasse of Hollow Power

1. The Voice from Hades: When Achilles Renounces Glory

“I would rather be a laborer, working for another man —a poor man who owns next to nothing —than rule over all the lifeless dead.”— Odyssey, Book XI, lines 489–491

Achilles’ confession to Odysseus, one of the most dramatic declarations in ancient literature, subverts every heroic narrative of glory and death. The hero of Ilium, the very model of Greek aretê (virtue), states that he would rather live the humble life of a laborer — without fame, without status — than hold dominion in the underworld. In other words, he prefers a modest life to the futile reign over the dead.

This is a symbolic denunciation of any form of authority that addresses people without soul — individuals lacking moral strength, spiritual freedom, or discernment. And here arises the key question:

2. Is Power Just When It Governs the "Dead"?

In Plato’s Republic, Socrates seeks the “guardian king,” one who knows the Good and governs guided by truth, not by force. He contrasts genuine leaders with doxosophists, demagogues who do not enlighten, but merely direct (Republic, Book VI, 484a–487a).

Achilles in Hades has gained insight. He is no longer dazzled by fame. He recognizes the emptiness of "status-style" authority. And the lesson, by analogy, remains deeply relevant:

What value is there in leadership, when those being led are not living souls but shadows, who obey without inner voice?

Dominion over the dead is not a privilege — it is a tragedy. Every leadership that does not serve the freedom and virtue of its people inevitably decays into either corruption or self-deception. The leader wanders with a crown but no kingdom; the masses obey, but do not comprehend; society appears to function, but is in truth a necrotic body — a living corpse.

3. Ethical Leadership: Its Measure and Its End

Philosophers of the 18th and 19th centuries — such as Kant, Hegel, and Tocqueville — warned that the essence of politics collapses when free citizens disappear.

• Immanuel Kant: In his theory of Autonomy and the Moral Law, defines the free person as one who acts not out of compulsion, but out of reverence for a moral principle (Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, 1785). A leader who governs passive individuals does not truly lead — he merely administers masses.

• Georg Hegel: States that “the master who is not recognized by the bondsman is an empty title.” (Phenomenology of Spirit, 1807). The same applies to any ruler whose followers are not conscious and free.

• Alexis de Tocqueville: In Democracy in America (1835), emphasizes that institutions function only when citizens possess inner virtue. Without it, all forms of governance eventually degenerate into bureaucratic despotism.

4. Within Freemasonry: Spiritually Living and Truly Initiated Brethren

Masonic teaching emphasizes that a true leader must illuminate through Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. He cannot build upon foundations of spiritual submission, nor be content with mere numbers devoid of essence.

A Supreme Council, a Sovereign Grand Commander, a leader of a Masonic body does not “govern” statistics — he walks alongside men striving to become better. If those men remain spiritually indifferent, then no institution, no matter how glorious its past, can escape decay.

And then, precisely then — like Achilles — the honorable leader will choose to withdraw, rather than continue to lead shadows.

5. Conclusion: Honor L

ies Not in the Rank, But in Whom You Lead

Leadership without living souls is mere management. When truth, virtue, and inner fire are absent from those who constitute a body — political, Masonic, or organizational — then the leader’s authority becomes like the honor of a king in Hades: an honor empty, without breath.

Better to labor in the light, humbly,than to rule in darkness, over the void.

Selected Bibliography

• Homer, Odyssey, Book XI (lines 481–540), ed. Alexandros Zoras.

• Plato, Republic, VI 484a–487a.

• Immanuel Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, 1785.

• Georg W. F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, 1807.

• Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835.

• Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, esp. chapters on Leadership and Chivalry.

• Christopher Hodapp (ed.), Freemasonry & Leadership Ethics, Masonic Book Club, 2018.