“Power tends to corruption; and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men” – Lord Acton, 1834-1902, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 195.
“Money and power of course do drive people crazy. So, why shouldn’t people also gain power and wealth through being crazy?” – Saul Bellow, 1915-2005, VBQ p 195.
The entire world has
suddenly woken up to the transformation of America, from a country which “protects” the weak nations from the strong to one which flaunts the rapists belief that might is right. The invasion of Venezuela by the US and the abduction of its legitimate President; followed by the open threat to acquire Greenland, have revealed the US as the country now titling the world towards a global conflict.
Of all the quotations on power cited in the VBQ, the two quoted above are my favourites because, together, they represent the frightening faces of power and those who wield them in all spheres of life – private and public. Most people quoting Lord Acton’s observations stop at the first line. It required a lot of digging to discover the second line – which is perhaps more revealing of the dangers of abuses of power; whether by national rulers or religious, corporate family leaders – irrespective at what level.
The world has always worshipped and praised the powerful; especially empire builders.
In Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, foreigners who invaded other peoples land and seized their commonwealth have justified them by pointing to the civilization they brought. The victors write the history. Had Germany won the Second World War, WWII, he would be a hero today and not a villain. Even every reference to the holocaust might have been expunged from history. Even here in Africa, descendants of former conquerors still expect the victims of the genocidal wars they unleashed to pay homage to them. Some still talk of the Oyo Kingdom as if it was generally beneficial instead of the source of thousands of African slaves sent abroad. Reading several books on the scourge, which trans-Atlantic slave trade represented for what was called The Slave Coast, including most of Gulf of Guinea, what today has become the ECOWAS Region, the whites, with active collaboration by powerful African rulers, sent the youngest and most able of their people abroad in exchange for trash and more guns.
GLOBAL SEDUCTION SINCE WWII TURNS TO RAPE
“Seduction is worse than rape…
The entire “free” world, particularly the former colonies in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean Islands and South America had been seduced by “benevolent” America which emerged as the most powerful nation after WWII. Announcing her support for the independence of capture nations from their colonial masters, America duped us into forgetting that the greatest genocide in history occurred in the United States of America. While the British took only a small percentage of our people away as slaves and forced the rest to work for the Crown, the whites in America wiped out an entire race of Indians and stole their land. The founding fathers of America, among them Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, and James Madison, 1751-1836, who argued, and had inserted in the American Constitution, that “all men are created equal”, were the greatest hypocrites ever to live on Earth. To begin with, they were inheritors of landed properties forcefully taken from humans considered so inferior, they could not be allowed to live. Furthermore, they were all slave owners. I read at least six books on or by Jefferson and Madison while compiling the VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, found their arguments attractive and logical until I became more involved in the Civil Rights movement led by the late Reverend (Dr) Martin Luther King, Jr, 1929-1968. African-Americans opened my eyes to all the well-documented atrocities of white men who went around the world preaching freedom, equality and justice, as the foundations of democracy – while practicing something else. Jefferson, in a letter to George Washington on April 16, 1784, proclaimed: “The foundation on which all our Constitutions are built is the natural equality of man”. Madison, just as emphatic declared: “Equal laws protecting equal rights…the best guarantee of loyalty & love of country”, in his letter to one Jacob De La Motta on August 1820. I was captivated by the decency implied in those utterances by American fathers. I prayed that Nigeria would become a great republic like the one envisioned. Then, I read about the first and worse holocaust – the extermination of Indians by the noble-sounding leaders of America. It was far worse than Hitler’s genocide; which claimed the lives of six million Jews in Europe.
Up to that time, and given America’s role in global affairs, and as a beneficiary of its generosity, my allegiance to the country was total. I planned to stay there for the rest of my life. But, the more I read about the crimes against humanity by white Americans, the more disenchanted with the country I became. My instincts, which seldom fail me, led to the conclusion that the global reliance on the US might become a trap; from which the world would be extricated at enormous costs and with pain. Like Germany, all that would be required is a leader like Adolf Hitler, with scant regard for other peoples’ rights for a new America to emerge.
THE RETURN OF THE UGLY AMERICAN
“What experience and history teach is that people and governments never learn anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it” – George W Hegel, 1770-1831, VBQ p 92.
The Third Reich got off to a roaring start when the Germans elected a deranged fellow, Hitler, as Chancellor in 19… to help “Make Germany Great Again -MAGGA”. Before embarking on his mission, the crazy fellow had written two books. The first, MEIN KAMPF, or MY STORY, was an autobiography and political manifesto in 1925; in which he outlined his programmes if elected. Prominently included was his intention to introduce a Final Solution to what he called “the Jewish problem” – which left no doubt about what to expect. The ideas were regarded as insane by leaders of thought; who were also convinced that nobody could contemplate implementing such a horrible project – until the gas chambers were receiving Jews for cremation. In August 1934, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. The entire world would soon discover that he meant every single word of what he had written earlier.
Unknown to most people, even now, was the publication of another book, which left no doubt that rivers of blood would flow if Hitler came to power. I had a copy of it before flood swept it away from my house in Ibadan. Fortunately, some excerpts were taken from the book. Again, my instincts told me that another powerful nut might emerge before my “NAFDAC number expires” (Uncle Sam). Read what Hitler wrote long before millions of people lost their lives from 1932 to 1945: “If necessary, when a people’s life is at stake, they should not hesitate from daring to shed blood to the utmost…” (Page 10)
“The task of the leaders of a nation’s struggle for existence consists in eliminating the unbearable condition in a fundamental way… This requires a determination to fight and risk bloodshed” (Page 15).
There were at least six other references to bloodshed to the utmost. Furthermore, he strongly recommended that strong and advanced nations should seize the lands and resources of weaker nations in order to utilize them better for the sake of human development. He fully endorsed colonialism; and wondered why Britain, France and Spain had not wiped out more Africans and Asians.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
“What does corrupting time not diminish? Our grandparents brought fort feebler heirs; we are further degenerate; and soon will beget progeny more wicked” – Horace, 65-8 BC.
Trump’s father was born and lived in Germany until after the war. He was probably a member of the Brown Shirts, the terrorist gang Hitler created to implement his evil plans; before migrating to America. Given his known tendencies, Donald Trump, who would have proudly worn a brown shirt and joined the Nazi Party, if he was alive then, is now President of America; and, in his second term, had created ICE, an official terrorist group, which is now rampaging in the country.
Nigerians, especially Christians, clamouring for Trump to come and bomb more, need to be reminded that Hitler started World War II by adopting divide-and-rule tactics and by advancing false narratives regarding the nations and people Germany later overran and subdued. “It is unthinkable that wisdom should ever be popular” -Johann Wolfgang Goethe, 1749-1832. They should get it into their heads that Trump hates black people, irrespective of religion, and hates Muslims for their religion. He wants to re-colonise the world. Period!
Follow me on Facebook @ J Israel Biola.
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