BPreviously, anxiety caused by arrhythmias seemed to be a thorn in the side of dictators. They prefer to look out onto the field in uniform and squeeze the masses they control into static blocks so they can be better controlled. And if anyone steps out of line, they’ll be in trouble. Some kings and bishops feared nothing more than being fooled. As early as 1668, the writer Johann Prätorius warned against “circling dances full of shameful and dirty behavior.” But even 300 years later, musical ecstasy is still preferred by mushroom heads, teenagers, jazzers and hippies eager to roll around in the mud to the sounds of Ravi Shankar’s sitar.
So what does it say that autocrats are suddenly the disco of today? Russian President Vladimir Putin recently saw a humanoid robot dancing towards him at a company event and, according to him, he found it very enjoyable. Donald Trump has also been on fire recently. Moving his arms to the sound of a military band on the Malaysian runway, looking like a child who couldn’t cover his head with his sweater. Dancing, even when danced, can be very liberating. “Good, next time we will go dancing together,” said Chancellor Friedrich Merz to Brazilian President Lula da Silva. After a minor faux pas at the climate conference in Belem, which Merz liked less than Berlin. By the way, Merz and Lula da Silva are not autocrats.
But now Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro is suddenly dancing in his presidential palace. To remix one of his speeches: “No war, yes peace”. Several happy young students moved beside him.
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They all probably do because of the many US warships currently stranded off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea. This could be a form of “dancing” for Trump. Maduro recently demonstrated his Americanophile musicality elsewhere: when he sang the peace song “Imagine” in front of his supporters. By the way, it was once written by a hippie. But the fact that a dictator is now singing “Imagine” is something new. Well, what do you do when you are afraid of your power. Does Maduro just want to appease the US President in that way?
By the way, there are no dancing videos of Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado on the Internet. When he traveled to Oslo on December 10 to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, he did not know whether Maduro would allow him to return to his country afterward. In Venezuela, the Attorney General is investigating him on charges of “conspiracy, incitement to hatred and terrorism.”
Nowadays you really have to pay attention to who is dancing in front of you. Can also be an autocrat. Or robots. And it’s probably not as funny as Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” when he dances on a table with a globe to the sounds of Wagner’s Lohengrin. Until it explodes.
