Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.
by D. Goddard.
Joseph Stalin was able to terrorise Russians because others in Government and the hierarchy of his army were complicit in the brutality that was meted out to innocent people or to those who showed dissent outwardly.
Idi Amin Dada, a buffoon of gigantic proportions, ruled and terrorised Ugandans because he too found assistance from favoured politicians, persons of influence and especially from a complicit army.
Throughout the history of the world, whether it be Queen Mary the First, Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler or Mao Zedong, and whether the reason has been political, religious or ethnic, millions of people have died, suffered or have been deprived of their basic human rights because there was complicity from other influential, powerful human beings and agencies. Sometimes evil also thrives because of apathy.
History will show that in all of these countries the army was compromised, the police forces were compromised, the judiciary was compromised.
Those who were greedy took money or positions to prop up unscrupulous leaders, or in some instances, the good ones were got rid of, side-stepped when it came time for promotions to positions of great influence or they simply fled from the entire situation.
The point I make here is that we human beings create monsters, allow them to thrive, make excuses for them, treat them as though they are gods, and then silently complain.
The truth of the matter, though, is that those who complain having allowed a situation to fester, are worse than the monsters of whom they complain.
The power of one should never trump the might of many. A lesson worth learning by all mankind but sadly always ignored.
