Personality Cult in Gaddafi’s Libya
In Socialist Libya, you can have a watch in any colour you want, as long as it's Gaddafi.
In 1969, when he was only 27 years old, Muammar Gaddafi overthrew King Idris of Libya in a bloodless coup and began his 42 year-long rule of the country, which he later renamed The Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. His political ideas, outlined in The Green Book, can be loosely described as the marriage of socialism and Islam. In typical fashion of both ideologies, Gaddafi fostered a cult of personality that would make Stalin or Saddam Hussein seem like the pinnacle of modesty in comparison. Prior to his violent overthrow in 2011, it would have been impossible to walk down the streets of Tripoli without seeing images of the dictator plastered all over the city. Much of the wealth generated by the country by its oil reserves was siphoned off by Gaddafi to fund his extravagant projects and vacations abroad. He also used state funds to supply weapons to global terrorist organisations and his government was responsible for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.
The Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya was just one of many socialist regimes ruled by a dictator who used the state as his personal bank account. Gaddafi didn’t give a fuck about the Libyan people, he only cared about himself. His idiosyncrasies, such as his all-female-virgin bodyguards, his massive bulletproof tent, and his eccentric outfits testify to his narcissism and corruption. Libya would have likely been a better place today had its wealth not been embezzled by Muammar Gaddafi.