The price of leadership
(This post might be depressing for you. Open your mind's windows if you must read it.)
"in the eight years that the Han Dynasty was being replaced by the Qin Dynasty 221-207B.C., the population of China decreased from 20 million to 10 million.
. . . .
In the Dong (Eastern) Han Dynasty 206B.C.-220A.D., the population of China was 50 million. After the transition of power to the Three Kingdom period 222-589, the population decreased to 7 million.
. . . .
In the Sui Dynasty 581-618, the population of China was 50 million. After the transfer of power to the Tang Dynasty 618-907, only one third was left.
. . . .
At the peak of the Song Dynasty 960-1279 the population was about 100 million. But in the beginning of the Qing Dynasty in 1655, the population was 14,033,900. During the 20 year period from 1626 to 1655, the population decreased from 51,655,459 to 14,033,900."
- Source
And then we have:
61,911,000 Murdered: The Soviet Gulag State
35,236,000 Murdered: The Communist Chinese Ant Hill
20,946,000 Murdered: The Nazi Genocide State
10,214,000 Murdered: The Depraved Nationalist Regime
- Source
We've got Alexander the Great, Charles the Great, Kangxi the Great Emperor, and many other greats.
You'll understand I am not impressed by men whose "greatness" is defined by the number of heads they mount on their wall, whatever their reason.
If this behavior was justified because others waged war on them and they were only defending their turf, then we also admit to the rightness of saying, "Better I kill you before you kill me."
And that is how nearly a billion men, women and children were put to death against their will. Having grown up with martial arts, even I have to say I find nothing superior, clever or brilliant about settling differences by death.
The Buddha had this to say:
In this world
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible.
- Dhammapada
2 comments:
Dear Damien,
Like you mentioned, we tend to put a gloss over our so-called Great Leaders and ignoring the atrocities committed by them.
Still, people often deserve the governments they support. So, even if these people did not exist, it's likely that someone else would have done the same.
It takes a person of incredible courage like Gandhi to apply non-violent solutions in an increasingly violent world.
Rgds
"people often deserve the governments they support."
In a democracy, yes. It might also be true karmically. The reason why hundreds of people die on a ship with a bad captain... there might be something that ties their collective fate to that particular ship. Same thing if we are born in a repressive society. Things happen for a reason.
Post a Comment