Читать книгу Hamam Balkania - Vladislav Bajac - Страница 20

After the Sultan’s departure from Edirne, Bajica began to think again about Husrev-pasha’s previous visit. He was attracted by the pasha’s careful preparation for a successful welcome; setting the stage for the Sultan’s arrival. Everything had been done so that nothing would surprise the ruler, inconvenience him, or even disappoint him; but rather that each detail would await him as something expected, familiar and certain, in order to convince him that everything that happened was under control. Bajica realised that all this happened according to a plan made by the pasha. Furthermore, he concluded that the ability to foresee events was of exceptional importance for those in power: if one could only foresee all the possibilities, whether national or personal, and then make decisions that matched the possibilities and goals with the needs of a situation, then one could also determine the path to achieving those goals. This could, therefore, be called planning. Or politics.

In precisely the same way, one could avoid all the undesirable consequences of future actions. By choosing what he anticipates, a man can avoid making mistakes, unnecessarily wasting time, and thereby – if a decision of state is at stake – losing too much money, too many human lives or even too much territory. This same approach, if used without explanation in front of people who were not aware of the background, could seem like prophesying:

If one knows what will happen, one also knows what attitude to take toward the event.

What he now termed as Deli Husrev-pasha’s ‘spying’ visit, could be divided into two subcategories. The capacity for planning was one of them, and publicly showed the ruler’s power over events. It perhaps even reflected the wisdom with which all human relationships can be resolved, from incidental encounters at the bazaar to those among rulers and entire countries.

The second category was perhaps less transparent and was certainly not for the public. It had the intention of revealing faults rather than qualities, looking for the mistakes made during the visit rather than the successes. It looked for the vulnerable places so that, if it ever became necessary, they could be used. Like a sabre hanging above a victim’s head that, at any moment and for any reason, could suddenly drop. It would be like an enduring document written in indelible ink, stored in an invisible place from where it could be made public easily, quickly and at any time.

This must be the path toward the creation of the superior individual and a noble empire. He decided, whenever it was possible, to attempt to ‘spy’ on himself. Both secretly and in public.

It was only much later, when the remarkably more subtly veiled knowledge about ruling a country became available to him, that he realised just how correctly he had sensed the importance of this kind of spying; recognised for the first time, with the seemingly accidental intertwining of events and the destiny of individuals and entire peoples.