Friday 30 March 2012

Interesting Correlations

Just doing some random Wikipedia searching this morning, and I noticed an interesting correlation among some of history's most infamous dictators. Many of them are dropouts/rejects. I'm sure studies have been done on this which I am too lazy to do a proper academic search on right now, but I am going to throw down my examples anyway.

Name: Joseph Stalin

Title: General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR.
Education: Performed well at the Georgian Orthodox Seminary, but was expelled for not writing his final exams.
Career: Was a major leader within the soviet union during the second world war, and was its head from 1953 until his death. Over 3 million were killed during his regime, with some historians estimating as many as ten million deaths due to executions, massacres, deportations, and mass shootings.


Name: Pol Pot

Title: General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (Cambodia)

Education: Flunked out of the exclusive Lisee Sisowath school. Attended EFR in Paris, failed exams for three successive years and was sent back to Cambodia

Career: Communist Leader in Cambodia from 1963-1981, a period during which approximately 21% of the population died due to forced labour, malnutrition, poor health care, and executions.



Name: Benito Mussolini

Title: Head of the National Fascist Party in Italy

Education: Expelled from boarding school after "a series of behaviour related incidents".

Career: Established a police state in Italy, which he enforced with an iron fist. Led Italy through the Second World War as a member of the Axis. Was able to do some good things for Italy, however ultimately led them to defeat in the war, and was executed in late April, 1945. 


Name: Adolf Hitler

Title: Fuhrer of Germany

Education: Rejected from Vienna Academy of Fine Arts twice. Lacked the academic credentials for architectural school. Became worlds most infamous dictator instead? 

Career: Don't need much explanation here. Hitler's policies resulted in the death of about 40 million people, including the fourteen million killed during the holocaust. 


So what does it all mean? Trouble with authority? Narrow, unacademic thinking? Intelligence in certain areas, and a great deal of idiocy in others makes for a great authoritarian leader? What do you think?

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