Has anyone read "The Dictators' Handbook?
A very enjoyable read. It takes the view that all leaders main aim is to remain leaders and sees if their behaviour can be derived from this rather than thinking different societies have different ideologies they are trying to implement - and why often things in dictatorships are so 'orrible and development remains so low.
Hardly uplifting... but at least it does provide an argument that both debt relief and international aid although often well intentioned are counter-productive.
An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings.
"If you can't trust the local kleptocrat whom you installed by force and prop up with billions of annual dollars, who can you trust?" Lemur
If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter. Winston Churchill
Re: Has anyone read "The Dictators' Handbook?
Saw the movie The DicTator, very uplifting I bursted out in laughter so many times. I'll give it a look, link would help. As for topic, I kinda think Morgenthau was right with his six principles of political realism. It's really cynical you will love it you cheerie you
Re: Has anyone read "The Dictators' Handbook?
A good synopsis.
An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings.
"If you can't trust the local kleptocrat whom you installed by force and prop up with billions of annual dollars, who can you trust?" Lemur
If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter. Winston Churchill
Re: Has anyone read "The Dictators' Handbook?
Heh, ordered, never heard of it I at least want to own it. Everything in that video should be obvious to everyone but... well. Author amd Morgenthauseemto share a common dominator; power. The works of Machiavelli also didn't age at all
Last edited by Fragony; 02-06-2018 at 12:38.
Re: Has anyone read "The Dictators' Handbook?
I've got it and am reading through it. Very enjoyable book for us cynics!
"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
-Abraham Lincoln
Four stage strategy from Yes, Minister:
Stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
Stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.
Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.
Re: Has anyone read "The Dictators' Handbook?
Im currently slogging my way through Peter Wilsons history of the 30 years war.
There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford
My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.
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