In this instalment of my commentaries on Jehu, I further interrogate the implications of Jehu-esque leadership. Jehu and the other characters mentioned herein are archetypes. Owing to their sensitive actions, their anecdotes have to be rendered in metaphors—this is effective storytelling at its highest level.
I shared in January how these three themes pointed to the emergence of Jehu, the choice people go with: the patriot over the puppet, prosperity over propaganda and policy over personality. I did also ask, “Can we get an encore?” It turned out most people couldn’t live with the failures of Ahab and where did that bring them? Back to Jehu. Dread it, run from it, his destiny arrives all the same. The Jehu streak is still active; at this point, the emergence of more Jehu-esque leaders is no longer a prediction – it’s a spoiler. It’s hubris to think this is a bug, not a feature. Last time I checked, more incumbents were being removed from office, or resigning, long-standing dictatorships had been upended, vestiges of colonial rule were being rejected and some former leaders were pulling off encores. It’s only a matter of time, even the five eyes will see things move to the right because Jehu is a trumpet–a harbinger of a new order.
It’s not just that people are punishing incumbents but more importantly, they are rejecting extremes. Smart thinking in the foreseeable future is to move towards what can be called practical mainstream, centrist, middle or common sense policy positions. Fighting Jehu is really a fool’s errand; strategic people would rather interrogate the preconditions that bring people like him into play. Jehu is not a good guy, he is not a bad guy either – he is the guy that is needed to shake things up. He comes with as much baggage as he comes with blessings but he is favoured for being authentic. People appreciate real even when they don’t agree with it.
The reason Jehu’s W is a big deal isn’t that he took out Ahab, he can do that with both hands tied to his back, it’s because it’s really a victory against the well-oiled machinery that carries water for Ahab. What’s a mob to a king? If you ever come for a king, you had better not miss. Trying to sabotage Jehu usually plays into his hands because given his own vices, there is a higher chance he will hang himself with a rope if left alone. Jehu will come after the blob with his signature fire and fury; some will call it justice while others will refer to it as retribution depending on who you ask–one way or the other he will clean house significantly. I can already see more pink letters flying out of the seventh floor, those folks just don’t want any of that smoke.
Breaking the fourth wall is not about the legacy media going extinct, it is just the landscape will be changed. Mainstream will be redefined because new media will constitute a larger portion of media real estate. People want media that can call balls and strikes, not the sorry-we-got-caught approach. Propaganda isn’t just about creating fake news, it’s about hiding real news. More people are roundly rejecting the click-bait and sound clips approach to information dissemination in favour of long-form content which offers more context and allows for more interrogation of submissions.
People felt betrayed when those they trusted looked them straight in the face and lied to them. Jehu knows this, and that’s why he will fundamentally alter the way people consume information. One way he will achieve this is by dredging up those things that were considered classified; bringing the secrets that were buried in darkness to light. I did say that Ahab was a sleazebag; behind that façade of looking like a good guy, a lot of monkey business was going on. There’s something I found interesting about Ahab; even when he clearly saw the handwriting on the wall and knew he had to sing his swan song, he chose to be disingenuous till the very end by engaging in subversive manoeuvres to absorb himself from the consequences of his actions. Micaiah was gracious enough to give him a heads-up but the poor guy got censored anyway. Ahab set up Jehoshaphat to take the fall for him but he was busted.
Jehu knows how to read the room to his credit–he has his finger on the pulse of what matters to large swaths of people, not just what appeals to special subgroups. He knows people want education, not indoctrination. People are rejecting the politburo for social conservatism and economic nationalism. If these lessons are not learnt, this hubris will be revisited in time to come and another Jehu will emerge after him. When I see one, I recognise a rebel movement; this was never about Jehu. He is not only the rebel-in-chief, he is the face of those who want the status quo upended but couldn’t speak out because they didn’t want to get cancelled, talked down on or labelled. Pulling a trifecta is crazy work, not gonna lie. Jehu is the middle finger to the system by those who have been hurt by it; he is an avatar for the demography of disgruntled people. People are sick and tired of the ad nauseum victimhood Olympics, faux sensitivity and walking over eggshells just to tell the truth as it is.
Jehu seems to have silent supporters because of his important positions: pro-family, pro-freedoms and pro-faith. It’s hard for most people to look past these three considerations even where he’s not liked personally. Ahab on the other hand is owned by the military-industrial complex, neocons and warmongers, so even if he were to promise peace, he couldn’t keep his word because peace is antithetical to the business model of his enablers. Young men want to study war no more, except to defend the sovereignty of their homeland – they don’t want to die in other people’s fights. Jehu is a warrior but he fights to establish deterrence, he would rather not drop the payloads but if it becomes expedient he won’t hesitate to scramble the jets. Ahab’s appeasement strategy and Jehu’s FAFO foreign policy are like night and day–the madman can go band for band. So if you have ever prayed for peace, Jehu is your guy whether you realise it or not. Whenever the homeland is heading to hell in a handbasket, a patriot arises–he emerges like a phoenix from the ashes. Whatever you think of him, you cannot hate Jehu more than you love the homeland.
It will be dumb for the opps to mess with the homeland when Jehu is calling the shots. There is a saying in Latin: si vis pacem, para bellum which is loosely translated as: “If you want peace, you must prepare for war”. You will see the renewed supremacy of the eagle over the bear and the dragon because Jehu will unleash a new era of shock and awe. Jehu understands how to be hawkish, especially with Ben-Hadad; unlike Ahab who loves being politically correct, he won’t recite poetry to someone who isn’t a poet. This time around the gloves are off; all options are on the table, and business may now be conducted on the continental grounds.
It’s loaded bases season: the last time Jehu was swinging for the fences, this time he is going for the home runs. He threw wild haymakers then, now he’s going for the jugular. He shot from the hip then, this time he went for the kill shot. Ahab might be the king of cancel culture but Jehu is the king of culture wars. Those sweetheart deals with the adversaries are over; the opps were moving too brazy when Ahab was in play. People were promised that the adults had entered the room and swore business would be taken care of. Clearly, that was not the case, so the same people fooled around and took a once-in-a-generation mulligan. Jehu will usher in a hard reset, the wrap sheets of you-know-who aren’t going away anytime soon – the hunter will become the hunted.
It’s hard to ignore certain similarities between David and Jehu; it’s almost as though the story of the son of Jesse is interspersed with that of the son of Nimshi. I once described David as that comeback kid whose destiny was to be king even though he had no previous military or political experience. He gained national notoriety by taking out Goliath but as it is with establishments, they don’t like outsiders – so David is declared a pariah in his homeland and ends up in the cave of Adullam. That’s when something interesting happens; people (including those from Saul’s tribe of Benjamin) begin deserting the incumbent and realigning with the insurgent. His brothers who rejected him in the past led the cavalry of a new coalition of people who had also been disappointed by an out-of-touch leader. The same people who fought David when they didn’t understand him became his biggest cheerleaders because the persecution from Saul made David more relatable to them.
By this time, it wasn’t David doing too much to be king; the populist movement he led culminated at Hebron where they made him their leader – a different location from where his successor was inaugurated. As king, his recruitment strategy was obvious: personnel is policy. Sometimes the messenger is as important as the message; he hired the ultimate band of disruptors and renegades – those who the status quo had sabotaged became the core members of his cabinet. These people were referred to as the “mighty men of David” – these guys knew how to wet the streets up and put the opps in a spliff. Their bond was forged in the crucible of patriotism and persecution; no surprise, they became fiercely loyal. David took out Goliath but his team took out the brothers of Goliath.
Here is maturity; you can like somebody personally but acknowledge that the person isn’t a great leader. You can also not like someone personally but acknowledge that the person is a leader who is needed now. This is why you mustn’t allow anyone to put you into a box because that’s the first step to taking you for granted; you should be able to change your mind in light of new information and align with your strategic interests. Don’t be a slave in the land of the free. If you want Ahab, go for him. If you want Jehu, go for him. Anyone who says you can only choose one way or that something is wrong with you for not making a particular choice wants to rob you of your volition that even God respects.
Jehu is coming in hot; he will stir the hornet’s nest from day one. Not everyone who rooted for Jehu believed he would perform miracles because he wouldn’t – they just didn’t want to reward the terrible leadership of Ahab. Guess who’s back? Jehu! He’s still not loving the swamp. Jehu is not necessarily the solution, he is just here to buy the homeland some time. Power resides where men believe it resides. It’s a trick, a shadow on the wall. A very small man can cast a very large shadow. I was a canary in the coal mine; they called me a madman but what I predicted came to pass. I sensed it would be a “red letter day” when Jehu emerged; it wasn’t a wave but a tsunami. I don’t claim to know everything Jehu will do but the more I interrogate his archetype, the more I piece together a method to the madness. Ultimately, it’s in God we trust, not Jehu.
