Doonesbury Say What?

[thewayne]

"Sometimes dictators have good ideas."
--failed GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle, on Augusto Pinochets's privatization of Chilean social security

Let's see. Wikipedia says about Pinochet: "From the beginning, the government implemented harsh measures against its political opponents.[5] According to various reports and investigations 1,200–3,200 people were killed, up to 80,000 were interned, and up to 30,000 were tortured by his regime including women and children [6][7][8]" and "By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for various human rights violations, tax evasion and embezzlement during his 17-year rule and afterwards.[12]"

Corporatism Uber Alles!

What I really love is this demonstrates one of the fundamental flaws of US foreign policy for the last hundred years: anything as long as it wasn't Communism rather than promoting democracy and human rights.

*sigh* I guess I'm showing off my socialist leanings again. ;-)

Comments

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

You know I agree with you in general. Still, I have to point out that sometimes dictators DO have good ideas, and guilt by association is faulty logic.

Let's play everybody's favorite Hitler Card! The Nazis started a war that devastated the world, killed 50-60 million; they opened death camps and killed millions more in genocidal insanity. They also didn't like modern art, ate food when hungry, drank water when thirsty, and wore clothes in public. Doesn't mean that if you drink water when you're thirsty and wear clothes in public, you're a Nazi. You're not a Nazi just because you don't like modern art- or at least I hope not!

Of course- insert Canned Rant Number 32 here- I think rhetorical inflation has destroyed the meaning of Nazi. Once upon a time it was somebody who performed genocide on a global scale. Today it's someone who denies funding to the Museum of Modern Art, or takes your favorite parking space before you get there.

[silveradept]

Sometimes they do have good ideas. More often than not, though, they have rotten implementation, because dictatorial style is not the best way of doing them.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I think that dictators may have good ideas regarding a specific problem, be it social, economic, or whatever. Once they've addressed that problem, however, they can't let go. It's back to the 'absolute power corrupts absolutely' syndrome.

I think it's a bad idea to get your game plan from dictators. Their intentions may be sound and altruistic, but the devil's in the details. There's definitely something to be learned from dictators, but I think more bad than good. And I gladly welcome any examples of dictators who were beneficial in the long term as none are coming to mind.

I'm beginning to think that true altruism and self-sacrifice for the public good are becoming increasingly mythological.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Rather than duplicate a reply, please see my reply to the previous comment.

[silveradept]

Noted, and agreed. The true altruism and self-sacrifice might still be possible, but if someone came into office with those high ideals, in this sickly corrupt game, they would likely be punished and manipulated as a naif and given things that look good for the public but end up benefiting Evil in the end.