In Search of a Good Dictator (via Diasporadical)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Some of the best outrage is generated overseas. I hope you read this with as much delight as I did.

Here’s a sample paragraph –

Move on to what, though? Where does one go after a dictator? How to let go of a mental lifestyle that’s been seeded by a lifetime’s worth of democracy-talk? We are the generation that’s been weaned on talk that a country has to be at a certain point on the development chart before its peeps can even begin to comprehend democracy, much less enjoy its fruits. The country shouldn’t have so many freaking poor people, for starters, because you just can’t trust poor people. They never ask for much. A litre of paraffin and some cooking oil is fine, really. We have spent half our lives listening to life-presidents perpetuating the idea that, while we might never be ready for democracy, we are always ready for dictators. It would appear that we have a proclivity for despotism. That’s our lot.

This is good writing expressing that universal yearning for a life free from manipulation and control.

James Pilant

In Search of a Good Dictator What I am about to tell you, I would never tell anyone else. Yet I trust Diasporadicalists. You are the least judgemental people I know. I am confident that none of you will use what am about to tell you against me. I know my confession is in safe hands. Okay, deep breaths everyone. Here goes: When people ask me what democracy is, I still reply with a definition my primary-six civics teacher scribbled on the blackboard. That is: ‘Democracy is the … Read More

via Diasporadical

8 thoughts on “In Search of a Good Dictator (via Diasporadical)”

  1. Andrew's avatar Andrew

    I had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine the other day regarding the odds of successfully establishing self sustaining representative democracys in the Middle East. He borught up a good point. Every facet of our lives, and what is expected from us as citizens, is based on our cultural system of values. While an individual can easily become “enlightened” to the ideas of freedom and democracy, its much harder to change the cultural value system of an entire society to progress one way or another. When you look at different scales of human interaction (from the individual, to the family, to the community, to the state… all the way up), you see different sociological mechanisms becoming dominant.

    These dictators remind me of the Joker in the new batman movie. What they are telling the masses has a ring of truth to it. The problem is that they pervert the line of reasoning towards their benefit, or they take it too far to an extreme. It is true that it takes a lot longer for a culture to naturally develop into a new system of values. In the West, we had our Enlightenment period in the 18th century in which the inertia of cultural values finally gave way to the way to our current system of values. The middle east didnt really go through that period the way we did. So while you can easily find a middle easterner to agree that freedom and democracy are good for values for the middle east, the emotional need to break that cultural inertia seems to not have reached that critical point yet.

    I predict that it wont be 30 years after we are completely out of Afghanistan and Iraq before their democracies (that we gave to them, they didnt earn it like we had to.) are in shambles and new dictators arise to take power.

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  2. “If a man like Muhammad were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he
    would succeed in solving its problems that would bring it the much needed peace and
    happiness.” –George Bernard Shaw

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  3. “Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational
    dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one
    spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human
    greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?” –Lamartine, HISTOIRE DE LA TURQUIE, Paris, 1854, Vol. II, pp. 276 -277

    “He was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without Pope’s pretensions, Caesar
    without the legions of Caesar: without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a
    palace, without a fixed revenue; if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by the
    right divine, it was Mohammed, for he had all the power without its instruments and
    without its supports.” –Bosworth Smith, Mohammad and Mohammadanism, London, 1874, p. 92.

    My point is… if only Middle East follow the footstep of this Man (Muhammad – peace be upon him), in all aspect of social, economical, financial, legislative, institutional, judicial, leadership (…etc) matters of life, no dictator would assume leadership.

    Islam cultivates these values from self, to family to society, (just like a pyramid) so when everyone is prepared to live a life like Muhammad (peace be upon him) did, there won’t be any chance for dictators to play with people’s lives.

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    1. Andrew's avatar Andrew

      I think if more Muslims tried to emulate Mohammed and more Christians tried to emulate Jesus, the world would be a much better place.

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  4. Pingback: Andrew Comments on a Previous Post – In Search of a Good Dictator (via Diasporadical) « Pilant's Business Ethics Blog

  5. Pingback: “Islam: Message of Peace” Comments on One of My Posts – In Search of a Good Dictator (via Diasporadical) « Pilant's Business Ethics Blog

  6. Pingback: "Islam: Message of Peace" Comments on One of My Posts - In Search of a Good Dictator (via Diasporadical) | Pilant's Business Ethics

  7. Pingback: Andrew Comments on a Previous Post - In Search of a Good Dictator (via Diasporadical) | Pilant's Business Ethics

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