I must start by stating that the "Great" to whom I shall refer are not genuinely great human beings but simply those whom the world treats as being great because they hold some form of power. My proposition is to take the traditionally well-known Seven Deadly Sins and give one or more examples among such "Great" who have taken it to his or their heart.
Pride - Almost all of them are guilty of this, but special mention can be given to the Scotsman, Mr Anthony C.L. Blair, former prime-minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who loves to show himself off to the world. Although he is thought of above all by ordinary people as the "poodle" of both Mr William J. Clinton and Mr George W. Bush, he has what the sycophants of the English-language press call charisma, which in such cases can perhaps best be politely defined as being phoney charm. It appears that this charm is far better received outside Britain than inside the Kingdom and anywhere else in Europe. On our side of the Atlantic, we could well do without him, and we would be delighted if he could be given still another sinecure far away from our part of the world, perhaps in North America! Another, but in my view weaker, candidate is our president, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, who struts around as though he were the answer to everyone's prayers, when he is deeply unpopular inside France, for having so far made such a mess of national policies in many fields, especially for appearing always to give preference to the wealthy over the poor.
Greed - There are again several candidates for the crown in this category, but we can perhaps give precedence to Mr Richard Cheney, the greedy boss of certain corporations who notionally moved outside them to gain bigger profits by syphoning off public funds provided by the taxpayers of the USA into the coffers of these same corporations. His official boss, Mr George W. Bush, is also guilty of serious greed in order largely to boost the profits of the oil industry into which in Texas he, as a Connecticut Yankee, moved under his father's cloak. Mr William J. Clinton and others have also shown substantial greed in taking advantage of their former status and positions in lecture tours.
Lust - The most obvious candidate to win in this group is Mr William J. Clinton who managed to divert attention from his vicious actions by which his forces killed thousands of Iraqis by the means of the embargo on food and medicines (which embargo he enthusiastically inherited from Mr George H.W. Bush and then expanded) by revealing to a prurient public his sexual special activities. Various other politicians in the USA and elsewhere have also shown signs of being serious candidates in this category, and it seems that periodic scandals are far from uncommon in Washington D.C.
Envy - Once again we have an embarrassingly large choice, but a long-standing example is Mr J. Gordon Brown, who had for ten years so desperately wanted to take over as prime-minister of the United Kingdom from his compatriot, Mr Blair. The result, as we know, was that (just as the British economy for which he had been responsible for the same ten years started to unravel) he succeeded to the post to find himself even more unpopular than his predecessor with the general public in Britain, especially those people living outside his own native Scotland. This sin is also rife among many of those who are currently in opposition in their respective countries, and here in France we see this among many of the best-known members of the Socialist Party and in the USA it is common-place among the members of the Democratic Party.
Gluttony - The "leaders" of the G8 have an unbeatable joint lead in this after they had downed a massive feast at their recent meeting in Japan immediately after they had effectively talked out any genuine aid to the hungry of the world.
Anger - Anger can be righteous, but we are here considering the forms of anger which could never be justified. Among the strongest claimants for this title is Ehud Olmert, the former Gauleiter of Jerusalem, with close competition from several of his colleagues in his gang of brigands. They are regularly expressing anger whenever oppressed Palestinians do something to show that their resistance is far from ended, and showing anger that these Palestinians have dared to be unwilling victims.
Sloth - The prize for sloth goes, without any doubt whatsoever, to Mr George W. Bush whose physical laziness in office both in Houston and in Washington has become a by-word even by the standards of his adopted state. It appears that this goes back, at least, to the time when he was an idle draft-dodger during the USA aggression against Viet Nam.
Quite apart from this traditional list of sins, we all know that many of the "Great" (including all those named above with the sole exception, so far as I am aware, of Mr Sarkozy) are criminals under national and/or international law, and the rules of international politics ensure that their criminality remains unpunished despite the ample proof of their guilt. Their crimes include many of the sins on the traditional list, but they often strike out into new territory by the noxious combination of many of them with new methods of application to increase their evil effect.
We should all remain vigilant and keep a watchful eye on each person who seeks our support (in the cases where any form of democracy still survives effectively). We should also think hard before (even in our minds) we give anyone the title of "Great", since not a single one of those named above is really great as a human being.
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