I keep watching the news about the continuing ordeal of Ukraine and then changing channels, and I know I am not alone in doing this: there is only so much the general viewer of TV can take. People who understand more about international affairs than I do tell me that the Ukrainian/Russian matter is complex, but to me the matter seems simple enough, involving the obsessions of a powerful man, and the suffering of an innocent population. As usual, it is the women and the children who are bearing the brunt of the conflict, while President Putin remains supremely indifferent to their fate. And, as so often, I wonder what makes him tick.
Figures who were prominent in the past have given their opinions about powerful men. I’ve lived a long time, and I’ve always been interested in history, as well as in scholarly opinions about the subject. Scottish historian, philosopher, and general polymath Thomas Carlyle believed that ‘the history of the world is but the biography of great men,’ while Lord Acton, a Catholic historian writing in the generation after Carlyle, remains famous for expressing the idea that power tends to corrupt; he also believed that great men are nearly always bad men. Semantics are important: we are fairly clear as to the meaning of ‘powerful men,’ but the word ‘great’ is rather more layered.
Acton went on to opine that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and he also disapproved very strongly of the sanctification of ‘success,’ another nuanced concept. Acton had Oliver Cromwell in mind when he expressed this idea, but of course every generation produces similar men. I have learned about a long list: the German Kaiser Wilhelm II, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Franco, Pol Pot, Idi Amin and Milosevic are just some examples.
Of course millions of people have troubled early years, and very few of them become tyrants or dictators, but the Kaiser, Hitler, Stalin and Milosevic all endured great unhappiness as children. So did Putin. All had to bear what is often referred to as ACE: Adverse Childhood Experience. And I think it is true to say that childhood never goes away.
'It is often said that people get the government they deserve, and even in democracies, many individuals act only out of self interest, and are quite content to have a so-called strong man at the helm.'
The Kaiser wielded immense power, but was erratic, highly strung and impulsive, and