Who are the worst dictators of all time? Hitler, Mussolini, Caesar, Amin, Gaddafi, Hussain, Pot, Stalin? What good qualities did these people posssess? What made them effective leaders? What lessons can be learnt from dictatorships?
I don’t think dictators can simultaneously be good leaders. To be an effective leader, you wouldn’t need to dictate.
None of these guys knew what the fuck they were doing. They were just self-obsessed. Arbitrarily through a series of unfortunate circumstances got into positions from which they could spout their garbage. And people just see "leader" and aimless as they are, a percentage of them will follow.
These guys used their power and influence for horrible things but imagine they used it for good instead. They could have perhaps cured cancer or poverty or done some greater good through their leadership. Clearly they had traits though that people looked up to or a plan people could identify with. Or are they all just beneficiaries of luck- being in the right place at the right time.
There are so many factors that play into this that haven't even been scratched at yet. Such as the state of the country and regime. The fact that so-called "democratic countries" had a role in all modern dictatorships. And that populations of any country will differ in opinion as to their overlord. Many segments of the populations significantly loved Gaddafi, Hussein and Stalin. Even to this day there are powerful segments of the US population openly fighting for Pinochet and Hitler style dictatorships.
well it certainly goes back thousands of times further then any of those names mentioned, and much of what we can never be certain about is because his-story is seldom told honestly. my opinion; they're all just a s bad of course. i suppose you could compare the size of their genocides, but not all tyranny is death either. when you're not allowed to exercize your own abilities in the harmless ways that are most gratifying to you, you're not living in a free country. you can always find some time and place worse of course, no matter where and when you are. but that doesn't make what you have freedom. so to look at the other side of the question, has there ever been a place that is free? i believe unnoticed places might sometimes be. and perhaps, so to speak, before the invention of agriculture, because people were too busy looking for something to eat, and there's several ways freedom could come about in the future, if anyone survives to be free, after the distruction/colapse of the environment. you want to name names. well i can't, because the only one's i've ever experienced we've been sortof partially scielded from, though perhaps not so purrfectly as all that. the greek and roman empires and the maccabees, were all dictators. any nation or empire built on war, its fear and loathing of love and peace, and america is no exception to that. and of course not all of our 'enimies' are either. effective leaders? i'm not sure that applies. good at getting themselves into the possitions they enjoyed. that begins with a couple of things, a possey of bully boys who want them, who find them useful as a shield while shielding them. in our current era, it means grabbing all the headlines, so that people have no way of knowing any other possibility exists. even negative coverage is useful to them, if it drowns out everything else. anything else that could possibly be useful.
