Trouble with Dictators...

The trouble with Dictators is that they aren't fast learners. 

Any 15 year old kid could go on the internet or take out a book at the library and research dictatorships and autocracies and find that they just don't work in the end. They never did. 

"Let them eat rolls"

The first example that comes to mind is the French Revolution of 1789. Louis the 16th and his wife, Marie Antoinette were beheaded and their dynasty was finished. 16,594 other people of the nobility and intelligentsia were killed along with them. 

When the French peasants were starving for bread, Marie Antoinette, their Queen, said "Let them eat Rolls". (She did not say "Let them eat cake.") This was not a politically correct statement to make, since it lead to her decapitation. This was her last mistake. 

The second example that comes to mind is the fall of the Romanov Czars in Russia in 1917. I remember as a young teenager seeing a picture at the library of one of the palaces of Czar Nicholas and Czarina Alexandra and thinking - "This building is 3 blocks long.  How can anyone live in a place like this when their people are hungry?" And obviously, the Russians were thinking the same thing in 1917 and dumped the Romanovs and in fact slaughtered them all, including their children.  End of the Romanovs. 

3 block long Romanov Palace, built in the starving time of others

In the modern era, the fall of dictators has more to do with the quest for basic human rights than it has to do with hunger. People want to be able to speak out freely, to have viable elections with viable candidates, have jobs and access to education. They also want to be able to walk down the street without the fear of being whisked away to a prison by the secret police because they don't agree with the government. 

Tunisia's sorrow

And now....the revolutions for change are in full swing.

Tunisia's head of state, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, has been forced out of power, after 25 years of corrupt and abusive rule and the theft of funds from the people of Tunisia.

Egypt's sorrow

Hosni Mubarak, the President of Egypt, has been ousted from power, after 36 years of corrupt and abusive rule and the theft of funds from the people of Egypt. 

Libya's sorrow

Moamar Khadaffi in Libya is on his last legs. His hope for a continuous family dynasty, after 42 years of corrupt and abusive rule, is over. 

Bashar Al-Assad, the President of Syria, is the heir to his father's rule of Syria, which lasted for 3 decades. The Assad family has ruled Syria for 40 years oppressively, including the numerous killings of political opponents. The days of the rule of the Assads are numbered. 

Syria's sorrow

The leaders of several smaller Arab emirates and principalities may be packing their tents soon and silently stealing away. 

The desire for money is
second to the desire
for power

One thing that is universal to all of these modern day dictator dudes is that they siphon off hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars from their own countries into their personal bank accounts. They steal money and deposit it in numbered and anonymous bank accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands and buy hotels in New York and Paris and office towers in the Arab Emirates and invest in the stock market. They are smart that way.

What is not smart about them is that they never know when to quit. 

Power must be a potent drug. The average person on this planet has no power and is barely able to hold onto life. For most of us, our lives are shaky and tenuous at best.  We don't really even understand the concept of absolute power.

The Shah of Iran -
The smart dictator

The one dictator who was smart, in the final analysis, was the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who in 1979, left Iran as the riots were escalating.  He left with hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars that he had stolen from his people.  His wife and surviving children are still living off of this stolen money.  And they live like kings and queens. He achieved his goal in the end.


If there was a book published called "Dictatorship for Dummies" it would state as a summary - "If you are a Dictator - steal the money and then run."  

Father, lead us to
to justice.

God help us all. 

God save us from the dictators and the money hungry and the thieves. 

God save us from the power hungry, who are the most dangerous and most evil of men. 

God save us from the abusers of human rights and from those men who do not value human life.

Hear us, Father.