“I saw the emperor – this soul of the world – go out from the city to survey his reign. It was truly a sensation to see such an individual, who, concentrating on one point, while seated on a horse, stretches over the world and dominates it.”
October 13 1806 the German philosopher saw Napoleon ride by on his way to a great victory.
Napoleon was at the height of his power and had ruthlessly swept through Europe on his way to take Russia, to unite Europe under French rule. As described by Jonathan Black in his book, The Sacred History:
“Hegel believed he was seeing the realisation, the unfolding of the great Cosmic Mind – ‘the Absolute’ – before his eyes. He would write that certain individuals stood at the forefront of all great historical movements and could ‘cause the ideal to stand before the real’. In his eyes, Napoleon was a man of action who revealed to humankind its creative possibilities. Napoleon knew what he had to do, and because he was unfolding the history of the world, the divine plan, he could break moral codes, infringe the rights and trample over others and destroy.”
Napoleon’s sweep through Europe ended on the outskirts of Moscow in November 1812, at the onset of winter, the plan was to take Moscow and rest his soldiers for the continuing campaign of European domination. As he regrouped his army in preparation for the onslaught, the Russian soldiers seemingly melted away, into and beyond the city, setting it on fire. Moscow was built of mainly timber houses and was razed to the ground, denying Napoleon the rest his men needed, the ‘inevitable’ victory, and the choice to either freeze without shelter in the bitter cold of a Russian winter or retreat.
The French Emperor, intent on conquering Russia, set out with an army of 600,000 soldiers, about 100,000 returned home. The bitterness of the winter, rather than Russian military might defeated Napoleon.
Nothing much changes. “Despotism creates circumstances of its own undermining. The information gets worse, the sycophants get greater in number, the corrective mechanisms become fewer and the mistakes become more consequential” is how Stephen Kotkin described the weakness of despots in a recent essay.
Their ability to seduce millions in their megalomaniacal rise to power and cause massive destruction of human lives and the crippling of economies they leave in their wake, a wasteland of destruction, poverty and grief. And too often an ill-equipped and ill-prepared body of would be liberators are left to pick up the pieces or, as is more often the case, pick out what little wealth is left, continuing the destruction of societies and the means of equitable governance. Often with the help of other countries who seek out their own ‘rewards’ for being so helpful in rebuilding and setting up the structure of a future economy. (Think here of how helpful Australia was for Timor Leste, looking at the dividing border and the gas reserves …).
Looking at the conflicts and the fallout of conflicts today, we see the ongoing destruction of Ukraine, but what we only get are snippets of information on is the effect, economically, socially and politically that war is having in Putin’s Russia.
Putin surrounds himself with a circle of trusted confidents who are fiercely loyal, and when that loyalty is rested, some fall away, as the leader of the Wagner Group discovered when the aircraft he was travelling burst into flames and fell to the ground. Putin also controls the flow of information, closing down media which tell the wrong story, imprisoning those who criticise him and his ambitions. An attempt to escape to another country does not ensure safety; poisonings have killed the outspoken.
As his focus on history, and his modifying history to suit his agenda reflecting on the might of the past Russian Empire, the unifying factor of the Russian Orthodox Church as being the spiritual validation of Russian power and his self appointed position of the new Czar as seemingly ordained by God, justifying the invasion of Ukraine as being his god-given task of reunifying the empire. Much as Hitler’s ‘liebesraum’ was to unify German speaking people, and giving them ‘living room’ precedence over non-German speaking people, and since most people in Ukraine speak Russian, they are Russian and therefore Ukraine is part of Russia. That the west is encroaching on Russia with the expansion of NATO, and that no respect is shown to Russia, justifying the retaking of Crimea and Ukraine.
We see the devastation of Gaza and of parts of the West Bank and Lebanon, but we do not learn much about the costs of that war and who bears that cost. Could it effectively bankrupt the Israeli economy?
In a recent article in Al Jazeera it was estimated that over 7,500 US made bombs have been used to level much of Gaza and were responsible for the deaths of many innocent civilians including tens of thousands of women and children. The cost of those munitions, about $68 billion, of which about $17 billion is covered by the US government.
Who will carry the cost of rebuilding Gaza? Can it even be rebuilt, and if not what will happen to the surviving population? Will they, like those who were removed during the Nakba of 1948 live out their lives in refugee camps, unwanted anywhere?
Much like Putin, the Israeli Prime Minister uses the history and mythology of the Jewish people to rationalise the ethnic cleansing of not just Gaza, but the West Bank and the settlements on the Golan Heights. That history includes the Holocaust and the mythology of God’s promise to Abraham, 2,500 or so years ago that the land is for ‘His People’, Abraham’s descendants.
Much like Putin, he surrounds himself with sycophants and political allies to validate the ongoing conflict. As in the description of Napoleon,
“… he is unfolding the history of the world, the divine plan’ laid out so many years ago and told in the book of Genesis… God’s word, which gives him the unquestioned right to ‘break moral code, infringe the rights and trample over others and destroy.”
And then we have the conclusion of a thirteen years civil war in Syria with the hasty escape of Bashar al-Assad and his family to Moscow where they have in recent times invested in real estate holdings, purchasing 20 luxury apartments worth $40 million, according to the Financial Times, so they can continue to live a comfortable life while in exile, leaving behind a fleet of luxury vehicles and cities devastated by the bombings of the war, a ruined nation welcoming back the millions who fled as refugees during the war years.
Apparently, propping up what remained of Syria’s economy was the illicit manufacture and sale of the drug captagon which is similar to amphetamines, and distributed through the Middle East. Estimated sales of about $2.4 billion a year.
What sets Bashar al-Assad apart from ordinary Syrians is that he was born into the ruling family, and while the ‘spare’, was promoted to heir at the death of his elder brother. As with Putin, those who dare to stand up to the ‘authority’ of the dictator, pay a heavy price. Death alone is too easy a punishment, death can only come after lengthy period of torture.
The words of the Pogues song The Band Played Waltzing Matilda come to mind, but seem somehow too tame.
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
and I awoke in my hospital bed
And I saw what it had done, Christ I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying.
For those taken to the prison in Damascus, sent to the torture rooms underground, many would have wished for death, for them, as for those in Gaza, each day they are reminded there are ‘worse things than dying’, but is not a Turkish shell, but at the hands of their guards and interrogators.
But not all despots go to war on their people, sometimes simple threats and disappearance ratchet up the fear level to ensure the despot’s power remains unchallenged, such is the power of Saudi Crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. In a recent BBC documentary, his ruthlessness was described, his use of position and power to achieve his goals, not just for himself, but also for his kingdom. In a case where he was being sued by an investor who sought to buy something he wanted, he sent the judge a bullet with a note that if the judgement went the ‘wrong’ way…, and then there was the disappearance of a journalist who dared to write the wrong things, political dissidents are repressed through torture and imprisonment. Or sometimes kidnapped and dissolved in an acid bath.
His objectives for Saudi Arabia include weaning the economy off oil, and is focussing of tourism, which includes a policy of creating a more liberal society, women are less restricted that previously, even allowed to drive, music and dance are being promoted to bring tourism, the 2034 World Cup is to be hosted by the Saudis. That liberalisation has a condition, and that is that the Prince’s authority is not challenged, that politics is avoided, that there is no dissent. The prince rules with a soft glove over an iron fist.
There are many means a despot has at his disposal in order to cling to power. The threats made by Donald Trump in the recent election campaign and the selections he is making to put acolytes and sycophants in cabinet positions is setting the platform for ensuring he gets his way. The threat of using the courts and policing agencies to get back at his perceived enemies, his racism, his elitism is placing those who will speak out against him in dangerous positions. The democratic experiment of the last 260 years may well unravel in the next four years.
In there lies also the warning for all who live in a democracy, that we value the freedoms it enshrines and be ever vigilant and engaged in the process to keep democracy alive.
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