The Writer-Diplomat Tradition (opens in new tab)

Thanks for posting this article OP. It's just what I needed to read right now.

It seems so common these days to think of leaders as "captains of industry" or any other exhausting exaltations of strongmen, literally or figuratively. And yet such breathless smarmy dreck belies that the world is on fire; figuratively, literally, interpersonally. We are more isolated now than we have ever been, and the great flattener of technology and capital threaten to steamroll us or those less fortunate than us; and we are, as always, powerless but to watch aghast. We see the suicide numbers tick up in lock step with the virus. Perhaps we are on some subconscious level forced to admit that people are truly dying of broken hearts. Perhaps we are all much closer to that precipice than we could ever be comfortable with.

I think that in times like this, spiritual leaders are forged from the crucible. Spiritual leaders speak to the human; they inspire, they bring hope. But a demagogue is no diplomat; the former seeks to strategically amplify and wedge, the latter to soothe and balance. I think that all great spiritual leaders must actually be competent writers or perhaps world builders. The diplomat trafficks in details, personalities and emotions, and the ways in which their exchange can accomplish coordination. They are civic servants, first and foremost. No amount of clever marketing or messaging can shortcut this necessary and exhausting toil.

And so too is this the case with the writer. The skills that make for great copy, sloganeering and samizdat unfortunately do not make for relatable characters and narratives that stand the test of time. To depict human nature faithfully is to depict it in all of its flawed, earnest, conflicting and vulnerable fragilities; it is to be able to write not just the epic but the anti-epic.

I cannot help but think of what a colossal waste of perfectly good life it is to reduce human existence to the drudgery of the coliseum. And yet, when confronted with reality, I must almost everyday glumly admit that such a reality is the one we live in. I wish we lived in a softer world, a world more accommodating of the spirit.

A great example of a 20th-century writer-diplomat is Romain Gary, of France:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romain_Gary

Married to Jean Seberg, once challenged Clint Eastwood to a duel, and wrote more than excellent novel, including "La vie devant soi."

Wasn't Stendhal a consul? The consular service brings in a number of other writers, including on the American side Hawthorne and Howells.

I pulled a slim volume of St.-John Perse off the shelves, and confirmed that he was a diplomat. The dust cover remarks that the translator, Dennis Devlin, was himself a diplomat.

The list seems to restrict writers to novelists and poets. George Kennan was an excellent memoirist and historian. His works are not hard to find.

Maybe there's something here. My 19 year old niece is on her first semester of international relations and she had a strong interest in literature and writing during her teen years.