Pick up some popcorn and take off your turban, the fun is just getting started in the middle east.
Muammar Gaddafi has this dictator thing down pat.
I mean rather than sit back and hope the protesters go home (in the vein of Mubarak from Egypt) or make concessions (like in Algeria), he has decided to go full blown war criminal.
We've watched now as Egypt behaved rather admirably (I initially doubted them) in overthrowing a dictator. We've seen other nations make limited concessions to delay what is beginning to seem inevitable.
But now for the first time in this party we're seeing the guy who's had so much to drink, that he's willing to spike his friends morning coffee just to get them to rejoin the party.
A mostly peaceful revolution was growing, and Gaddafi turned it into a civil war.
And why not? Where is the fun in ruling over a country if you can't fire on your own people and hire African mercenaries to come in and do your fighting for you because your own men are defecting.
Anywho I'm far from an expert on all this so let's have some fun with it anyway.
Here are the top 10 ways it doesn't matter what a dictator does during a revolution.
10. Shoot at them
This only makes them angry.
9. Stop shooting at them
This only makes them more angry.
8. Turn off the internet
Now they can't vent on twitter or their blogs, hard to turn back from this point as they are very angry.
7. Turn back on the internet
Annnnnnd anybody on the fence now just saw the youtube video of your troops shooting innocent people while you sip tea. Even angrier.
6. Go on television
This is only a good idea if you are announcing and then committing your suicide. Otherwise it just makes them angry.
5. Pay off the media
Positive editorials have never slowed an angry mob.
4. Beat up the media
The press is like a universal frat. Beat up one, and everyone turns on you which of course, make the people angry.
3. Flee the country
You won't be coming back alive.
2. Stay in the country
You won't be getting out alive.
And the number one way it doesn't matter what you do during a revolution is.......
1. Blame the protesters themselves by calling them foreign agents etc. Because nothing soothes the heart of a savage beast/rioter/protester than being told by the focus of his hate that he's responsible the problems. This just makes them.....you guessed it...angry.
If you're a dictator, you won't like them when they're angry.
I know this is tongue-in-cheek, so I'm not exactly responding to this article in particular but I've noticed in a few conversations that you don't seem to be so hot on the idea of these protestors and what they're doing. Is that accurate?
ReplyDeleteIf so, I'm not sure why. I would agree with the notion that we can't be sure what kind of government these unwashed masses would choose to put in place of the old regime, so caution is warranted. US interests may not be served by what's going on. But for people in our position, who value democracy, isn't this inherently good, even if the consequences may hurt us (the west) down the road?
Don't we, who love freedom, have a duty to support the ending of autocratic governments, regardless of cultural context? Isn't that thing, in and of itself, good? Shouldn't we be sympathetic to those who have been deprived for so long of what we have enjoyed for so long?
The protests themselves may seem ugly and part of a mob culture (although I'm impressed by the restraint shown by protesters, compared to the actions of the establishments), but isn't that the essence of democracy, for better or worse? After all, before the more enlightened actions of Jefferson and Franklin were possible, there was much confused, bloody, angry and ignorant mob rebellion in Boston that paved the way...
I've been picking up the same vibe as well.
ReplyDeleteJohn, these people are living under a dictatorship, and it should be quite clear that Gaddafi is anything but an enlightened despot. The Libyans are not in a position where they can simply form a committee and try to negotiate better conditions for themselves.
Why are you so quick to belittle people trying to assert their liberty?
Guys as Dungy noted there is some sarcasm in this thing.
ReplyDeleteI even said in this that I was wrong about Egypt.
Of course I support the overthrow of dictators and the bulk of the middle east has in fact shown great restraint and remained peaceful until the government forced them to do otherwise.
This post was to belittle dictators, saying that once the people decide it's time to change there's nothing a dictator can do about it.
Fair enough. I think we all get that this is a goofy kind of post and we're not really taking it seriously. It's just that I've seen you kind of sigh and shrug your shoulders about the whole thing and I wasn't sure why.
ReplyDelete