Thursday, March 29, 2007
The next Harry Potter book!!
Thanks, Pat, for pointing me out to this link. The artwork for the cover of the new Harry Potter book has been released. Check it out!.
Friday, March 09, 2007
The Last King of Scotland
I've been meaning to blog about this for a few days now. My schedule has been busy, though, and the thinking behind this post has been a bit on the *heavy* side. So ... bear with me, please!
This past Saturday, I found myself in Fredericksburg for about 5 hours between rehearsal and concert, and I ended up seeing "The Last King of Scotland". I've been very interested in Central and East Africa lately (there will be an upcoming post about that very soon!) And, in case you didn't know this, "The Last King of Scotland" is about Idi Amin's violent reign as "President" of Uganda in the 1970's. The title is in reference to the fact that he referred to himself as "the last king of Scotland".
If you can live with the violence portrayed in the movie (I don't usually have to close my eyes, but I did for one part of this one ... there was a LOT of blood throughout the movie!) ... and, there are also a few scenes with some graphic sexual content ... so, once you've decided that you can live with those things, I would definitely recommend the movie. It's fictional, but based on the realistic descriptions of Amin's personality.
You can find all sorts of things to read about Idi Amin online, so I won't describe him to you. Look him up on Wikipedia for a refresher course.
What I've been wanting to blog about is the concern I have about personalities like Idi Amin or Hitler or Mussolini, etc. These men came to office by legal means, and exerted their irrational methods once in power. What concerns me the most is how charasmatic these people were. Of course, in hindsight, we can call Hitler an evil ruler. In hindsight we can call Idi Amin a lunatic. But I often wonder what it would take for me to be "taken in" by a leader's personality enough to be blind to the things that are happening behind the scenes. When I *feel* trust for a leader, is it founded in anything other than sound-bites or staffer-written speeches?
Admittedly, many of history's most wicked rulers came to power during times of national crisis, and thus the people were looking for extreme leadership. But how bad does it have to get? Where is that breaking point?
I wonder ... how much longer will it take for the United States to elect an official who will take us down a road that we don't want to go down ... and which we don't realize until we're lost?
