SHOULD WE KILL A DICTATOR?(Charles E.J. Moulton) SHOULD WE KILL A DICTATOR?

Article by Charles E.J. Moulton


Where does one draw the line?
Should we kill a dictator?
Muammar al-Gaddafi was shot in the head in his home town in Lybia and the population subsquently cheered. Caesar was stabbed, Louis XIV was beheaded, Nicolae Ceauscu was shot and Osama bin Laden was assassinated.
The effects of hatred are irreversible.
We are walking in a minefield.
The happiness for the freedom of the Lybians is a legitimate one, but as one fellow journalist put it: it is now up to the Lybians what they do with that freedom. It reminds me of one Iraqui boy, who was asked what he now would do when Saddam Hussein was dead. He answered that he would do what the Americans do: eat Hamburgers and found a boy group.
Is that really freedom? Freedom to follow the call of commercialism? Fast food and fast culture? Obviously, it is everyone’s own choice to do what they really want.
What actually happened after the French revolution? The horrid detriment of the destitute in pre-revolution France led to a situation that excalated to the extreme. For close to five years after 1789, “the reign of terror” executed 20 to 40 thousand people including those that stood at the forefront of the dissidence.
What becomes really terrifying is to see the state of Paris after the revolution. Nothing had actually changed. In fact, in some ways there was even more luxury in Paris afterwards than before. There was another group of people dancing and drinking, but there was still wine, women and song. It was in the end not even about making it better. The oppressed just wanted to ventilate their anger.
Napoleon Bonaparte rode on the wave of post-revolutionary France. Once he became Premier Consul, he founded the French state police and banned Baronesse de Staël from Paris because she published a Contra-Napoleonic opinion.
Soon after having murdered Louis XVI’s brother and possible Bourbon heir, Napoleon crowned himself emperor. Again, nothing had changed. There was a Bonaparte on the throne and not a Bourbon, that was all.
Many revolutions suffer the same fate. Although Marx’s basic idea of communism carries many benefits, the bitter Russian population tired of the Romanov autocracy received nothing different after the revolution. The contra-marxist idea of the proletary populace having to be led gave the dictatorship the liberty to found the KGB, close in a whole continent from input and forbid the citizens to travel.
Basically, we have a Democles sword in our eager hands. People should not be oppressed. Everyone has the right to be respected. But if the result of the revolution produces something that is just as bad: are all the deceased worth the effort? It is a human fault.
For the followers of people like Anthony Robbins and Dalai Lama, positive thinking moves mountains.
Killing your oppressor is sometimes the only way to get out of a hopeless situation. The Gaddafi Syndrome of the dictator being shot by his people only appears, however, because of misuse of leadership. What we need are leaders that respect the dignity of freedom and the integrity of the citizens.
We have all seen the pictures. Mohammar al-Gadaffi shot in the head by his people in his home town in Lybia and the people subsequently cheering. What I remember most of all, however, is that at the moment of death he was not the international terrorist. He was not the killer or the racist or the bigot, rich, angry politician.
Gaddafi pleaded for his life: “Please don’t shoot!”
At that moment, money and power didn’t matter. He was a little boy hoping to be pardoned. That might be a lesson to us all. Basically, we are all God’s children sometimes walking way, way, way off the beaten path.
Responsibility is needed by all, including politicians who know that in the end it might haunt them if they support international terrorism.

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