[Dannyboy]

I'll admit I'm somewhat unfamiliar with the history of Saddam Hussein and how he came to power. However, I've heard he was a Marxist of the Stalinist variety before he became a "Born-again Muslim." Looking back at some of the more colorful communist leaders of the past (Lenin, Stalin and maybe Mao), I'd have to say it was true. They all seem to have many things in common, one in particular; numerous statues of themselves. Hussein has statues and murals everywhere, it seems. What is the deal with this? Is it just some sort of dictatorial ego booster, or something? I mean, it's not like these were good looking guys.

[Pendragon]

Well, what kind of person do you have to be to put scores and thousands of people to death for opposing you in the most oblique way?

Interestingly - many, perhaps most of the people who stalk and kill ex lovers/spouses suffer from narcissistic personality disorders. They cannot abide the idea that they can be rejected - so they turn to fear, intimidation, control and often murder.

What do you think these people would do if there was no check on their will? Often they will try and harm the victims dog or children or other loved ones. Nothing is off limits in their quest to make the world live up to their personal vision of how things outta be. Do you think these kinds of people would not kill anyone who got in their way if only they had the means?

One of my good friends was married to a man who was like this. he had a crisis of sexual identity and was trying to keep a foot in each "world" so to speak. She had some scary moments trying to get away from him...

[Sir Galahad]

It's called a "personality cult". The Soviets had practically outlawed religion, so they substituted the Russian Orthodox church icons with even larger icons of Marx and Lenin. They felt, at first, it would lead to greater "working class conscienceness". (Of course, it was a clumsy attempt at an ersatz socialist religion, forgetting Marx's maxim "...religion is an opiate of the people...", so how could it possibly lead to greater "working class conscienceness"?) By the time Stalin came, he didn't want to wait until he was dead like Marx or laying in a bed stark raving mad like Lenin. So he created his own little personality cult with statues and larger-than-life portraits (and his own namesake city: Stalingrad.) This also gave the subconcious feeling that "Comrade Stalin" was everywhere, watching, scrutinizing. See, Lenin and Marx were dead. But Comrade Stalin was still very much alive and not one to be trifled with. This is where the REAL idea for "Big Brother" in Orwell's "1984" came from and neo-communists and "anti-capitalists" running amok in American streets would do well to remember that. Stalin wanted to be adored and feared at the same time. It's part of a messianic personality that many communists fall into. Stalin became a de facto god of his own realm. Millions lived or died by his whim. And he was always there: watching, ever-present, waiting to spot the "counter-revolutionary." After Stalin died, the Soviets were pretty embarrassed by the "personality cult" of living communistleaders, so they dragged out the Marx-Engels-Lenin banners (always crowd-pleasers and perinnial favorites) and put those up. The message was the same: the State is watching. But more progressive communists in the U.S. and Europe weren't disquieted by wanna-be Stalins hanging pictures of themselves everywhere. Mao and Ho did this, too, and for the same reasons Stalin did. But after Stalin, the Soviets were working overtime to "sell" their brand of communism, so they dumped the personality cult of living communists. Breshnev dabbed in it, but not to a great extant.

[Standing Wolf]

Tyrants have been like that a long, long time. Those pyramids in Egypt were pharoahs' tombs.

[Chris Rhines]

One can make a salient argument that socialism is a form of religon, in that it requires the acceptence of absolute truths on faith, and it provides a code for day-to-day behaivor.

Communism, socialism, fascism, and statism in general are all about central control. Control over the economy, control over the law, control over the very bodies and minds of the people who have the misfortune to live under such a system. It's no surprise that a person who thinks he should control others might have an inflated self-image...

- Chris

[geegee]

I think part of Saddam's motivation is that he realized early on that few women can resist a man firing a Mauser, while wearing a Fedora. :what:

Alright, got that out of my system. One interesting thing about Saddam and his Moslem religion is that in the last few years (or sometime in the '90's), he apparently tried to offer up the notion that he is a direct descendent of the prophet Muhammad. I guess he did that for a couple of reasons: he has never ruled Iraq as a Moslem state (similar to Iran or even Saudi Arabia), and has been seen by some devout Moslems as, well, less than devout. By spreading this fantasy, he hoped to gain more legitimacy from Arab neighbors, and thus try to build and strengthen his own coalition in the Arab world (I'm guessing the U.N.'s opinion was never that important to him, as far as waging a war was concerned). His war would then become a war of all Moslems worldwide.

Secondly, I think it's too obvious to deny: narcissism taken all the way to deification. He surely has his true believers the same as most megalomaniacal personalities, and in fact, probably believes it himself. geegee

[JoeSF]

Saddam studied Stalin so this is the result of his education. I read somewhere he has plenty of Stalin statues around too.