I am fascinated by dictators. I can't really explain it. There is something about the way a person's mind works that allows him to turn into - as the dictionary defines it - "a ruler with total power over a country" that I find intriguing.
There could be arguments for nature versus nurture: Would these people have turned out differently if the situations they were living in were different? Or would they still have morphed into what they are regardless? Is the son of a tyrant more likely to be a tyrant than the son of a farmer or a teacher?
I guess what makes them fascinating is their complete and total self-belief. A willingness and determination to set a course for their country, which they undoubtedly believe to be the best (but hardly ever is, because their background does not prepare them for making such decisions) and to then force people towards accomplishing this vision.
The fact that this seems to be harming the country is seen as short-term pain that must be endured in order for the longer-term utopia to be reached.
But while this pain is borne by the weak, the strong are well-protected, isolated from hardship, and continue to support the destructive regime.
Where does anyone get off unilaterally deciding the fate of millions? What is the size of an ego that would allow a person to think that he unequivocally knows best? Why are doubt and remorse emotions that seem not to exist within these people? Why is it that they are willing to achieve these goals at any expense, including the blood of their own countrymen? Why do they think they know better than everyone else?
The most extreme case is North Korea, which is like The Truman Show applied to an entire country, but is heartbreaking as opposed to entertaining. Nobody can leave, unless the state permits it, and if they try to do so it is at their own peril.
I don't so much care about dictators when they fall, because they basically made their own bed, but I do worry about the people. I cannot imagine what will happen to them when one day the walls come down. Their only reality is the one they have been force-fed by their government, and if that were to topple I can't imagine the degrees of disbelief, fear, , denial, rejection and, I hope, acceptance that would be endured.
Another example a lot of people in the region would be familiar with is Libya. Friends who worked there would come back with fantastical stories about decisions like cars being shared by everyone; so people were instructed to leave keys in the cars so that anyone needing a car could just jump in and use it. Needless to say, cars were suddenly in scarce supply as people took to hiding them.
More well known are Muammar Qaddafi's Green Book and his disturbing demand for female bodyguards. There, the toppling of a dictator left a dangerous power vacuum hindering the country and stalling its progress, perhaps for years.
In such places the control over public opinion is very obvious in the "us vs them" mentality that becomes almost cultish. "Outsiders are trying to oppress us. Outsiders are trying to force their ideals on us. Our leadership is trying to resist because they have the best interest of the people at heart." Of course in such countries poverty and illiteracy are rampant, while a small group of people flourish, but arguments are phrased in terms that hit a note with the audience, convincing them that their way of life could be worse if someone else were in charge.
Which brings us to the fatal mix of charisma and fear. People are afraid of dictators - they don't make a point of baking cakes with orphans - but they do have a surprising amount of charisma. They don't have to be particularly smart, but what they do have is street smarts. They know how to manipulate people, playing groups off against each other to ensure their own survival, regardless of the price.
Let me be clear, in spite of ridiculous titles like "Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas" (which belonged to Uganda's Idi Amin) these people should be taken seriously because nobody earns the title "dictator" for being a nice guy. We may not think much of them as human beings, but we should never underestimate the possible harm they can cause, as the recent rise of tensions with North Korea has reaffirmed. But we shouldn't wait for such acts of aggression to try to counterbalance such destructive people. Rarely have such people proven beneficial for their countrie
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