Epilogue

What are leaders for? Do we really need them?

Rulers are supposed to care for their people. They don’t.

In 1603 the plague ravaged London. What did caring Queen Elizabeth I do? She ran off to Windsor Castle, away from the disease in the city. Could her people do the same? No. Elizabeth had a gallows built and said:

Rulers are supposed to listen to their people. They don’t.

Empress Anne of Russia liked to think of ways to punish her people. Did she listen to them if they complained about that punishment? No – because she had their tongues ripped out.

Rulers are supposed to set us an example. They only set us bad examples!

Peter III of Russia was a collector – he collected pickled nasties in jars. These included the pickled body of a two-headed child, the pickled body of a five-legged lamb, and the pickled head of a maidservant he’d had executed.

The pickle collection was looked after by a dwarf. When the dwarf died Peter had him pickled and put in a jar beside the rest.

Would you follow that example?

 

Some people have tried to tell rulers what to do.

A Roman writer called Onasander said:

But not many rulers have done that.

Instead, they have hidden behind bodyguards and given cruel orders.

Rotten Rulers didn’t have to get their hands dirty when they tortured and killed. Who did the bloody beheading, shocking shooting and horrible hanging? Not the ruler. It was the ruled.

Rotten Rulers can only win when the ordinary people do the cutting and the killing, the chopping and the lopping.

Ordinary people – like you and me. Mr and Ms Ordinary.

We remember people like Ivan the Terrible. But when Ivan had his minister boiled till his skin peeled off, Ivan didn’t do the dipping.

Mr Ordinary did that.

When Russian ruler Joseph Stalin sent his secret police to arrest and execute 20 million people, what did Mr and Ms Ordinary do?

Nothing. They shut their doors, drew the curtains, shut out the horrors and let their neighbours die.

When your Rotten Ruler tells you to kill and die for them, what will you say, you ordinary person?