[Suska]

Carl Jung
Andy Warhol
Camille Paglia

ah christ i didn't realize you were so messed up Donald, sorry.

[Diligent]

No political names here, but people who's opinions I respect:

Ray Kurzwiel
Richard Dawkins
Christopher Hitchens
Carl Sagan

[Donna]

sorry

It's ok.

[Joona]

Vlad Tepes
Caligula
Nero
Robespierre
Marat
Napoleon
Henrik VIII
Mary Tudor
Adolf Hitler
Genghis Khan
Vladimir Lenin
Joseph Stalin
Pol Pot
Ivan IV
Czar Nicholas II
Kim Il Sung
Kim Jong Il
Mao Zedong
Hirohito
Timur Lenk
Nicolae Ceausescu
Saddam Hussein
Suharto
Pinochet
Attila The Hun

I might have forgotten a few, but I think that just about covers it...

[Celtic Communism]

Good list Joona.

What best describes you ideologically?

[Cartertonian]

Good list Joona

...

What an astonishing roll-call of scumbags.

What is heroic - ideologically or otherwise - about any one of these psychopaths?

[Diligent]

What an astonishing roll-call of scumbags.

My thoughts exactly. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[Celtic Communism]

What an astonishing roll-call of scumbags.

What is heroic - ideologically or otherwise - about any one of these psychopaths?

Hitler was very heroic during the Battle of Britain. Rather than fleeing, which he had many opportunities to do so, he stayed at the command post for as long as possible, took responsibility, and then committed suicide at the right time (which is an old Indo-European tradition). Stalin did the near same thing at the Battle of Moscow. Churchill, on the other hand, by all accounts would have fled to Canada instead of dying a beautiful and heroic death. Saddam Hussein faced death and laughed - his executioners were too weak to show face to their President - and took his execution with honour and dignity. That was truely a beautiful death and a sign of heroism.

Most of the rest were warriors and conquerors, men of power and action, and undoubtedly committed many heroic deeds, too numerous to mention. They may have been psychopaths, but one seems to find psychopaths at the top of any society, especially in a heroic one.

[Diligent]

There are many heroes in the history of the world. But most never felt compelled to commit genocide on a grand scale.

[Suska]

Saddam Hussein faced death and laughed

I can see why you would think that...

[Celtic Communism]

I take it you did not see his execution video? Come back and laugh when you honestly believe you could even half-match the dignity, strength and courage shown by Saddam there.

[Suska]

Yeah, hiding in a hole is sooooo dignified

[Celtic Communism]

Yeah, hiding in a hole is sooooo dignified

He should have killed himself after the fall of Baghdad, yes. But he more than made up for it with his execution. If you can not recognise this then there is something clearly wrong with you. You probably were too busy shouting "USA! USA!" at your television screen when they showed Saddam's heroic death and consequently missed his dignity and elegance.

[Suska]

too busy shouting "USA! USA!" at your television screen

in fact I'm too busy doing that right this minute to hear your pathetic bleating

[Diligent]

I take it you did not see his execution video? Come back and laugh when you honestly believe you could even half-match the dignity, strength and courage shown by Saddam there.

I'm sure many of his innocent victims also faced their own deaths with the same amount of dignity, strength, and courage -- only no one gives a shit about them.

[Negotiator]

Well guess what, my main political idol is Mahatma Ghandi.

If it would be local politics, then Willy Brandt.

[Kman]

Saddam's heroic death and consequently missed his dignity and elegance.

CC why are you calling a brutal dictator that exterminated political opponents regularly and practiced organized mass murder, heroic?

Do you find Hitler heroic also? because Saddam and Hitler did many of the same things. (nvm I just read the post you wrote on the previous page where you do actually call Hitler heroic).

[Shadow Dragon]

I guess for me it would have to be Nietzsche. Though others that I greatly respect include LaVey, Gaius Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great and Socrates.

[FreeSocietyLeader]

Mine would be Jesus. His philosophy has never failed in any aspect of politics I've concerned myself with.


Now for those of you that don't believe in "fairy tails,"

I'm a huge Shane Claiborne fan. He's written "The Irresistible Revolution," and one of the most influential books I've read: "Jesus For President."

Leslie Weatherhead's "Christian Agnostic" provides great insight for lost theists, helped spark my religious flame after high school.

After studying a lot of Confucianism during the Summer, I would also hold The Analects to be great reading on political righteousness.

[Negotiator]

I do believe in these "fairy tales", but I do not thinnk that Jesus can be called a very good political instructor, because his teachings are very general and completely different political viewpoints may claim to agree with him.

For example, the early christians where the first people who practiced communism. Main reason why the church, in the beginning, didnt opposed communism much - after all, the bible downright demands it:

luke 18,22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

He also teched very general principles such as "dont do to others what others should not do to you" and "who rules should serve the ones he rules over", which certainly should be part of any just government.