Prime evil
As I continue reading about Argentina’s dirty war, I am reminded of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the hearings that it held during the years I lived there, while Mandela was President. Feitlowitz’s Lexicon of Terror features a whole chapter on Adolfo Scilingo, who holds a similar space in Argentine history to the space held by Eugene de Kok (also de Kock and de Koch, also nicknamed “Prime Evil”) in South Africa. Both were enthusiastic torturers and murderers, both followed orders, both did what they did for “love” of what they thought was right, both later felt horrible and confessed to unspeakable actions, and both are living out their lives in prison while the men who were their superiors die free, one by one. The main difference between the two men is that Scilingo tried to get out of the punishment phase of this story; he recanted his confession; de Kok, on the other hand, has become a model of enduring remorse.
Tags: About Africa, Politics, Prisons and Prisoners
Kendall
Generals gathered in their masses/Just like witches at black masses/Evil minds that plot destruction/Sorcerers of death’s construction/In the fields the bodies burning /As the war machine keeps turning/Death and hatred to mankind/poisoning their brainwashed minds/Oh Lord yeah// Politicians hide themselves away/They only started the war/Why should they go out to fight/They leave that all to the poor// Time will tell on their power minds/Making war just for fun/Treating people just like pawns in chess/Wait ’till their judgment day comes// Now in darkness world stops turning/As the war machine keeps burning/No more war pigs have the power/Hand of God has struck the hour/Day of judgment God is calling /On their knees, the war pigs crawling/Begging mercy for their sins/Satan laughing spreads his wings/Oh Lord yeah// — Ozzy Ozbourne, Black Sabbath, 1970
Thanks, Seth, for those powerful lyrics, and to you, Kendall, for another thought-provoking post. Our president, too–perhaps the country– seems to be recovering from a drug overdose: hubris.
I love you both. Never knew Ozzy Osbourne was so prophetic. And yes, hubris is SO narcotic.