Sunday - January 01, 2012

 Umbrellas and Tyrants in the Arab World

 I came across an interesting manifesto against Arab tyrants. It was mentioned by The Guardian journalist of the Middle East Robert Fisk who, in an end of year article, asks why middle eastern tyrants lasted so long. He mentions a very clever "Arab Tyrants Manual" which was compiled on Twitter over a period of time as events were unfolding after March 2011. People would send in their observations in Tweet form on how tyrants tried to stay in power. It is funny, clever, and rather sad. The original is here and I have I put a version of it on my own website here. along with an extract of an introductory chapter to the work which is not yet complete. It should be of considerable interest to libertarians - note that the author quotes Lord Acton's famous remark about how power corrupts.

Also note that the item 5th from the end says "Demonstrate your confidence with a casual prop of some kind. Umbrellas are good." which reminded me of this anti-Gaddafi wall graffiti which appeared during the uprising. There was also a strange photograph of him sitting in his car giving a talk on Libyan TV while holding an umbrella. 

Wednesday - December 28, 2011

 Mao waves "hello" in his Bathrobe

One of the choicest presents I got when I was in Shanghai was the statue of Mao my wife found in a market. It was of Mao in his bathrobe after he had swum the width of the Yang-tse River. 

Like any good dictator Mao wanted to show that he had superior physical powers and therefore was worthy of ruling China. He used to swim the width of the Yang-tse river unassisted and then emerge, wrap himself in a bathrobe, and acknowledge the universal acclamation of the adoring Chinese people. The image of him dressed in this fashion was used for propaganda purposes as the poster above indicates. Here is another:

[See larger image]

Wednesday - December 28, 2011

 King Kim II: Born to Salute and be Saluted

Baby Kim II with mummy and daddy (about 2 years old). Saluting authority requires precision and sharp angles.

King Kim II in 2011. When one is in authority one doesn't have to salute anybody but one does acknowledge the salutes of others, even if it is rather perfunctory and flaccid. See the excellent study by Tilman Allert, The Hitler Salute: On the Meaning of a Gesture (Henry Holt, 2008) where this very point is made. Hitler often gave very lackadaisical and sloppy salutes when others saluted him. The angle was also very important, either above or below the heart, straight arm or bent arm.

All this saluting was mocked brilliantly by Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940) including the different salutes for the saluter and the salutee.

[Adenoid Hynkel is "The Phooey" (Der Führer)]

["Benzino Napaloni" (Mussolini, il Duce)]

Wednesday - December 28, 2011

 The deification of King Kim II has begun

According to an article in the Guardian the deification of Kim Jong-Il has already begun:

When Kim Jong-il was born on the sacred mountain of Paekdu, a star rose above the spot and shone brightly, a double rainbow appeared and spring broke out spontaneously. Did we mention that his nativity was foretold by a swallow? The KCNA line is that once the dreadful days surrounding Kim Jong-il's death are over, a "spring of prosperity under Socialism will surely come to the country thanks to the patriotic devotion of Kim Jong-il who blocked the howling wind of history till the last moments of his life". "The sky turned red, it went on, and cracks appeared in frozen lakes. A Manchurian crane then bowed its head in grief."

Before we get too cocky about the poor North Koreans' love of their departed tyrant we should recall how readily Americans deified George Washington and Abraham Lincoln after their deaths. The worship of power and the powerful is a universal phenomenon, both in democracies and in communist societies.

[Unknown, "The Apotheosis of Washington and Lincoln" (1865)] [See larger image]

Wednesday - December 28, 2011

King Kim II and the Escalator to Hell