Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chris Rock are unlikely role models of male leadership that have suddenly blossomed in front of our very eyes on the world stage this March.
Neither of them is 6 feet tall or boasts a pedigree of distinguished positions of leadership. Both are comedian actors who seem thrust into events that brought out the noble best of human behavior.
Zelenskyy is a former Ukrainian comedian who played a Ukrainian president in a TV series and then ran for the actual presidency and won.
His only claim to fame before Russia invaded Ukraine two months ago was refusing an American president’s request for an investigation into Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine.
Otherwise he seemed like a quiet man who held his tongue.
Then Russia invaded his country, and Zelenskyy emerged as an eloquent speaker inspiring his country’s population with prose echoing Winston Churchill’s greatest World War II “We will never surrender” speech, in a live address streamed to Britain’s House of Commons in March.
“We will not give up, and we will not lose. We will fight till the end, at sea, in the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost. We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.”
Zelenskyy had already endeared himself to the freedom-loving world with a quote (which has since been printed on T-shirts) when the U.S. offered to provide him safe passage as the Russian invasion loomed large in late February. “The fight is here. I don’t need a ride; I need ammunition.”
He would not leave his country.
As the war unfolded, President Zelenskyy, dressed in army green himself, visited troops and awarded medals to the wounded in hospitals, even publishing a videotape of himself in his office almost giving Vladimir Putin the street address at which he could be found.
Streaming speeches to various world bodies, he has expressed appreciation for world support while firmly asking for more weapons to continue Ukraine’s fight for freedom.
While Zelenskyy has emerged from a television stage to the world stage with eloquence and bravery, Chris Rock was literally on a worldwide stage as comedian host at the Academy Awards (the Oscars) on March 27 when he was thrust into the center of the world’s attention.
When actor Will Smith bounded on stage uninvited and slapped Chris Rock in the face for a tasteless joke Rock had made about the hair of Smith’s wife, Rock was on TV channels around the world. What would he do?
Unlike Zelenskyy, Chris Rock’s leadership is not that of inspiring words or dramatic actions.
Quite the opposite.
Chris Rock’s leadership was unrehearsed and instantaneous for all the world to see when he was assaulted on live TV: He turned the other cheek.
One male slapping another male in the face is a recipe for a fight, whether in a schoolyard or on an international stage like the televised Academy Awards.
Chris Rock did not raise his hand in response, and when interviewed by management a few minutes later he declined to press charges.
He went on with the show.
When he appeared in a performance in Boston a few days later, he said only that he was “still processing” the event and would have something to say about it at a later time.
How is this comedian’s model of male leadership like that of President Zelenskyy’s?
Sometimes silence speaks volumes. Sometimes passivity is courage. (Ask Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.) Sometimes manhood is defined by thinking, not reacting; “processing” before speaking.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chris Rock exemplify two types of strength: the power of words and the power of thinking, neither of which requires physical force.
It is an inspiring lesson for me in what it means to be a male.