I say this recognizing the great wreck of society and suffering his rule caused over four decades and the carnage of the last six months. But the one thing that seems clear to me about Muammar Gaddafi today is that his post-Strongmancy is turning out to be even more entertaining than his Strongman period itself.
Yesterday I was catching running updates on the Gaddafi story from the twitter feed of al Arabiya English. At one point Gaddafi’s son Saadi announced that his father had empowered him to negotiate a ‘cease-fire’ with the rebels. Later, Gaddafi himself declared that he now wants to join the new rebel government. (I mean, he’s a lifelong public servant, has a lot of management experience running Libya … so why not?) Both of which — for a man who not only no longer appears to control anything but can’t even be located — are of course awesome.
At this point in the game normally people would be reaching for links to the iconic Black Knight sequence from Monty Python’s The Holy Grail. You know, where the Black Knight has already had all his limbs hacked off and he’s still challenging the other Knight to battle. Or to be more current, we’d be seeing a crop of Downfall parody videos. Those are the ones with Hitler in the bunker, trembling and sweaty, a cracked man with trembling yes-man trying to give him the bad news.
But really, I think Gaddafi has defied all such mockery. Given the offers of negotiation and application to join the new government, none of the Downfall parody’s sweaty desperation and hopeless anger would ring true at all. With Gaddafi, the bunker scene has to play a lot different. With the rebel council setting up a transitional governmnet and ratcheting up the manhunt, you’d have Gaddafi, decked out in a Hawaiian shirt, lighting up a cigar and making his way through the Complete Collectors DVD Box Set of Who’s the Boss? To capture the mood you’d probably need to have the Hitler/Gaddafi character offer the trembling generals some dip or maybe some Funyuns. I mean, why’s he even worried? He’s Gaddafi. This too shall pass. And it’s all good, regardless.
