How Odd

[poliphilo]

How odd that all the people who used to schmooze Gaddafi when he was in charge of his country and chucking money around (western politicians, entertainers, academics) have only just discovered what a bad man he is.

Comments

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

From a historian's point-of-view, the way things pan out in Saudi Arabi will be particularly interesting.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Indeed, as in that old familiar curse, "May you be born into interesting times".

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose anyone's had the good fortune to be born into totally boring, tedious times. Though I'm sure the vast majority of the ignorant muppets who breeze through life today would consider their world boring and tedious.

Oh dear. We might all be in for a bit of a rude awakening.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

In the early days of the Libyan uprising, al-Jazeera English would show file footage of Tony Blair with Gaddafi, then Sylvio Berlusconi with Gaddafi, then scenes of Sarkozy warmly welcoming the crazy bastard to his modest little palace, then back to poor old mad Tony, again, endlessly repeating. One would think that it would get boring after a while, but curiously I never tired of being reminded of how easily the rich accept each other's foibles and eccentricities, in the name of class harmony.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I am placing no bets on the future, right now. The ride has not even come to a full stop in Tunisia and Egypt. There really is no telling where all this might end and, if unrest does indeed spread to the Magic Kingdom, then all bets are well and truly off.

For instance, this thing is causing a split in the revolutionary movement of Latin America, something I should never have expected.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Saudi Arabia is the heart of the region- the heart of the Islamic world. If Saudi changes everything changes.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I find the way his flatterers have dropped him even more disgusting than their former flattery.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Wow. It won't be the first time that all us nobodies have found ourselves perched on the edge of the abyss peering down and wondering what happens next. And I'm sure it won't be the last.

To all those who don't believe in supporting the arts and humanities: ignore history at your peril...

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I find it rather odious, too...

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I'd say, their previous policy was appeasement - trying to keep a mad dog calm by throwing it the occasional bone.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

It happens all the time. It's simple appeasement when the schmoozing is going on. Later, when the powerful fall, their friends are few and far between. Strange, isn't it, that evil can only be recognized when an evil era is coming to an end. One would think that it could be recognized at the inception.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's true of the politicians- not so much of the entertainers- Mariah Carey for instance- and the academics- various people at the LSE. They were just happy to take the money.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

With Gaddafi the schmoozing went to extremes. Tony Blair was all over the man.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

He liked George W. Bush a lot, too -- and it was mutual!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Blair is very charming. Or so they say.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

It is truly disgusting. Even Blair, disconnected from reality as he is, must have known the truth of Gaddafi and chose to look the other way.

I'm also enjoying the various noises coming out of the LSE, about their good friend Saif al-Arab al-Gaddafi, son of the dictator. Everything seems to boil down to, "How civilized he seemed".