Quote:
Originally Posted by Spartan198
The fuck is it with these dictators and golden guns? O.O
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Over-compensation. Duh. Insecure people think that owning something that
looks expensive and flashy is an expression of their awesomeness, instead of a desperate cry for attention to which they feel entitled. In the case of Third World dictators, it's a way for them to make themselves
feel highly successful and civilized even though everyone knows that they're presiding over failed states that would collapse if not for aid money and/or oil. You know, "Look, I'm running such an awesome country that my bodyguards and special forces carry gold-plated assault rifles - even though I had to skim $1 million from my latest IMF loan to have the guns customized."
And this is Qaddafi we're talking about - a guy who was always desperate to be taken seriously in the international community, even though everyone saw him as a huge joke (including other Arab leaders, who were hardly paragons of competent governance themselves). When Qaddafi's regime started to collapse, I remember thinking that they were going to discover lots of golden guns at his residence(s), just like Saddam's. It seemed natural to expect from a man whose insecurities came out every time he opened his mouth in public.
To borrow a phrase from "Fight Club", I think the yardstick of civilization is whether your country's leader has gold-plated firearms.