Crime Never Pays…Why is This So Hard to Understand?

Today the world received the news that deposed leader of Libya Moammar Gadhafi was tracked down and killed by rebel forces. This marks the end of nearly 30 years of the former leader living lavishly as the nation he abusively and negligently controlled disintegrated around him. Upon thinking about Gadhafi spending the last few weeks of his life scrambling for survival and chatting through prepaid cell phones to avoid detection, I wondered what it must be like to go from being a palace-based dictator to an outlaw on the lam. Did he think that the years of violence and crimes against humanity were worth it? But more importantly, I wanted to know whether or not he had ever thought he was actually going to get away with it.

To say “what goes around comes around” unfortunately neglects to include all of the instances when corrupt people have managed to evade punishment for their wrongdoings. But on the whole, this is a worthy system to live by. The list of overthrown dictators and world leaders and politicians who have had to pay heavy tolls for their illegal activities is by no means a short one. Pick up a history book and you’ll easily see that since the dawn of recorded time, those who thirst for power and do not consciously take steps to convert that power into positive improvements to the world tend to end up dead. The emperors of Rome almost all met with murderous endings to murderous careers, and by the end of the Second World War, most of those directly responsible for its atrocities had been killed.

So to this I say: where were people like Mommar Gadhafi during history class? Even if the political and power-hungry thugs of today aren’t history buffs, surely they’ve seen a movie or two on the subject of crime and punishment. How about Scarface, or Goodfellas? Both are tough guy cinema favorites, yet both involve a main character who doesn’t realize that crime doesn’t pay until it’s too late. In fact, the latter film was based on a true story! There is no shortage of examples in both reality and entertainment that demonstrate the seemingly obvious truth that being cruel and coldblooded only spells out a future in which you will not be happy.

Yet, there are no shortage of individuals ready and willing to take on the mantle of a megalomaniac, and carry it as far as it will take them. When someone like Gadhafi falls, there seems to always be someone even more wicked ready to take over. This often happens in the days and weeks immediately after a ruthless dictator is removed. It’s as though people participate in teaching someone a lesson about life that they turn around and completely ignore once they are in power.

In the last hours and minutes of Gadhafi’s life, it’s doubtful that he was debating as to whether or not it had been worth it. By that point, his mind must have completely been transformed into something most non-dictators will probably never understand. To him, he was probably no more guilty of being a criminal than Jesus of Nazareth. It must be that in order to be willing to commit crime on your journey to the top, you must pretend as those you aren’t doing anything wrong at all. Unfortunately for dictators and fortunately for the rest of us, convincing others to think that way is difficult and almost impossible to continue indefinitely. Eventually, people decide to do something about it.