Creativity
On 20th October 2011 Colonel Qaddafi was killed in Libya, forty two years after he took to power. News stations released rebel mobile phone footage of his bloodied corpse dragged by the feet of Libyan NTC fighters. The reaction of our NATO states was one of disinterested jubilation; it was the victory of Democracy over Tyranny. Initial reports said he was dragged outside, beaten, his clothes ripped off and shot by a rogue gunslinger in the frenzy.
Is this Creative Destruction? For a “new Libya” to be born the “old Libya” must be destroyed.
Libya before Qaddafi was in borderline poverty, the monarch King Idris did not inspire his people. Qaddafi was the natural creative reaction to the Royal decay. We cannot believe our mass media in demonising political opponents (the links between Mr.Murdoch and Parliament demonstrate this all too well). Qaddafi began as a reformer; he empowered women’s rights in divorce and inheritance, newly weds were paid $50,000 as aid for starting their family, oil and bread were subsidised, literacy rates and the country’s wealth experienced a boom.
I see Qaddafi’s accession to power as an example of greatness in leadership (comparable to Napoleon’s, Stalin’s, and even Gandhi’s), for the simple reason that it was bloodless. Sun Tzu believed that “ultimate excellence lies not in winning every battle but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting.” Qaddafi’s coup d’état had no reported incidences of violence, it was Creation-without-Destruction, if you will. It was a perfect event with a leader of a revolution that was going forward into the “Ideal State.” Unfortunately, the “Ideal” is forever imprisoned in our individual minds, although no one has the same ideal. Thus Qaddafi had to take a necessary decision in enforcing his ideal on Libya to keep the decaying effects of dissidence at bay, he used both cunning (through informants and spies) and strength (“liquidating” political enemies). This is why our media calls Qaddafi the dictator with an “iron fist,” he was essentially too idealistic to be agreeable and after 42 years of his rule peace and subservience grow tired and conflict must eventually arise.
In the playground of politics the big kids did not like Muammar, he was a Socialist, oil rich and weapons rich. The “mad dog of the Middle East” was accused of sponsoring terrorism (by countries that have overtly supported the training and funding of the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan to terrorise Soviet invaders). But the worst threat to the world powers and central banks was Qaddafi’s creative plan of a new currency, the Gold Dinar. For African and Arab-Muslim nations, this would render the Dollar useless in oil and, according to RT “shift the economic balance of the world.” Qaddafi’s demise was in the waiting.
The scene was set, world powers and the Libyan people grew restless; the NTC and no-fly zones were the natural destructive reactions to a successful, creative individual. Democratic ideals of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité are beautiful concepts used by us to veil Destruction’s inherent link with the Good we aspire to. The price for freedom is heavy. Qaddafi’s destruction shows us that great men must fall in order to make way for a new product of creation.
The last audio message by Qaddafi I remember hearing ended with three defiant barks; “alet alman! Alet alman! Alet alman!” (“Go forward! Go forward! Go forward!).
Is Creation-without-Destruction ever possible? And can Peace ever be possible? While Man has progressed a thousand-fold, Humanity ceaselessly stands still against the currents.
