Thursday 20 October 2011

Gadaffi's end

I went into town early today for the radio users group monthly meeting for security staff, and came away with a job to do - to set up a blog that subscribers can contribute to. First figure out the best way to do it, using Google tools I suspect.

I was working away at this at my desk in the office when the news of Gaddafi's capture and killing began to trickle out. An ugly ignominious end. A mad cruel dictator gets a taste of his own medicine, some may think. Out of touch with reality he undoubtedly was, reported as saying indignantly to those who dragged him from his hiding place and disarmed him: "Don't you know who I am? How dare you treat me like this?" Whether his death was really an accident due to cross-fire or a deliberate execution on the part of someone  bent on vengeance may never really be known. The abuse of his corpse before being taken to a secure place was certainly a feast of revenge. It stripped his captors of the dignity of their achievement.

I agree with some media commentators that the continued re-cycling of film footage and pictures of his death resembled some obscene 'snuff' video. This is what happens with 24/7 news coverage, and also in a culture of dubious transparency which insists 'if it can be shown it must be shown'. The only concession to humane sensibilities are the warnings transmitted, of a 'look away now' nature. Gaddafi will not now face justice on this earth, but the media spectacle made out  of his demise, and the public display of his body, however grisly, may help give an illusion of closure on his tyrannical reign to some and reassure those who lived in fear of him for decades the possibility of a new beginning.

Tyranny only ends, however, when the tyrannised succeed in renouncing all the evil practices of their former overlords, and replacing them with non-violent and just ways of governance. It's less of a foregone conclusion than anyone might think.
  



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