Dictatorship in the genes

Wikipedia – that vast compendium of information and mis-information in many languages – provides an extensive list of dictators of various countries whose names are found in alphabetical order. All of them are men who were to wield state power absolutely. The first on the list is Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan and the last is General Zia al-Huq of Pakistan. This incomplete list of modern dictators includes such luminaries as Francisco Franco, Roberto Viola, Idi Amin, Fidel Castro, Efraín Rios Montt, and of course Josef Stalin, Mao tse-tung, and Adolf Hitler. They range over the continents and apparent ideologies, from nationalism, National Socialism, Fascism, to Soviet Socialism.

More than half of these are military men, while four were lawyers, one a physician, and the rest civilians or communists. Many came to power by coup d’etat, while others came to it by popular vote or as a consequence of social convulsions. These strongmen, with their insatiable lust for power, came to annul or amend their country’s’ Constitution and system of laws in order to proclaim themselves as president for life.

These dictators organized special police forces to repress their opponents; they prohibited political parties and declared as illegal any political activity not actively in favor of their government; they arrested dissidents and killed millions, all for the purpose of remaining in power.

Another characteristic of dictators is their apparent liking for war, something that causes a lower level of industrial output and a palpable deterioration of the economic, social, and moral fabric of their nations. Many of them end their days facing rough justice, assassinated, or in exile. This brings to mind a saying by Bertolt Brecht “The powerful rise like stars in the heavens, and like stars they fall.”

Researchers in Israel published a study in “Genes, Brain and Behaviour” in April 2008 about a gene called AVRP1, or what some have dubbed the “ruthlessness gene.” This gene is found in human beings but, as it turns out, is short among the ruthless, cruel, and violent. Examples of these are Saddam Hussein, Mobuto Sese Soko, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, among others. The AVPR1 gene assists in the release of a hormone called vasopresine, which acts among the brain cells that control affect, socialization and altruism.

The study, conducted at Hebrew University in Israel, used 203 study subjects of both sexes who had inherited AVPR1 genotypes from their parents. They were introduced to a game called “The Dictatorship Game” to determine who among them was most willing to share in money that was distributed to each of the participants. It was thus that the study identified those who ended up with the most money were the very same who were short on AVPR1. Therefore, those with the most AVPR1 were the most altruistic, while those with the least may be those showing dictatorial tendencies.

The list of dictators who have lasted longest in power are Fidel Castro (50 years), Kim Il Sung of North Korea (47), Muammar Khadaffi of Libya (39), Francisco Franco (36), Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay (35), Todor Zhikov of Bulgaria (35), Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam (34), and Rafael Leonidas Trujillo of the Dominican Republic.

Perhaps the gene the Israeli scientists should be looking for is the one that provides long life. Like the dictator in Gabriel García Marquez’ “Autumn of the Patriarch”, it would seem that Fidel Castro may live long enough to witness his own funeral. After a January 23 meeting with the glamorous president of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Castro claimed that he will not see the end of the first administration of newly elected Barack Obama. The aged athlete, deep-sea fisherman, executioner, lover, and sonorous rhetorician even now plans the obsequies that will attend a death foretold.