“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime”
Commenter John Tyler reminds us of this famous saying by Beria, the notorious head of Stalin’s secret police: “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.” As with some of our current political prosecutors, the idea is that anyone can be framed, prosecuted, found guilty, and put away. Although in Beria’s case the “put away” part often involved murdering them under guise of law or without it, today’s US prosecutors of the left usually settle for imprisoning someone for a long time, perhaps even life if possible.
But let’s put our US prosecutors aside for a moment, because I have another observation on Beria. I strongly believe that Beria was a sociopath (or psychopath; take your pick). That’s one of those words that is merely helpful as a description of a type, because we understand very little about what makes a person that way. However, I have a theory about such people, and that is that two of the things they believe are as follows:
(1) Life is a power struggle in which everyone else is as corrupt and self-centered as they are, and those who seem otherwise are either pretending or are just weak fodder for exploitation by the strong.
(2) The sociopath has determined himself or herself to be that strong, smart, and superior person who will be doing the exploitation.
Therefore when someone such as Beria says “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime,” he’s not only referring to the fact that he, Beria, can manufacture charges against anyone – although that is indeed one of the things he is referring to. But I believe he’s also saying that there is nothing special about Beria except his own power, canniness, and acknowledgement of the amoral dog-eat-dog functioning of all society and all human beings. He believes that everyone is guilty anyway, and that if they’re not guilty of the exact crime for which Beria charges them, they’re guilty of something – if only stupidity and weakness, or thinking the world is a moral one. That’s for chumps.
Beria was a truly horrific man, and it is certainly possible that he uttered this, but it is more likely that this saying is apocryphal, as is true of the two most famous sayings commonly attributed to “Uncle Joe” (the Soviet dictator, not the senile buffoon nominally in charge of our moribund republic): “no man, no problem!” and “the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million a statistic”. In fact, many of the most amusing quotations commonly attributed to famous persons were never actually uttered by them.
Oddly enough, I’ve just started watching The Death of Stalin, in which Beria plays a major role, (spoiler) but he doesn’t live to the end.
May be referring to Silverglate, “Three Felonies a Day”. Beria could see into the future and read the book, or something.
“today’s US prosecutors of the left usually settle for imprisoning someone for a long time, perhaps even life if possible.” neo
If a person’s life is unjustly destroyed is that not a form of murder?
“I strongly believe that Beria was a sociopath (or psychopath; take your pick)… I have a theory about such people, and that is that two of the things they believe are as follows:
(1) Life is a power struggle in which everyone else is as corrupt and self-centered as they are, and those who seem otherwise are either pretending or are just weak fodder for exploitation by the strong.
Does that not also apply to almost all criminals? How often upon arrest or conviction does a criminal freely admit to their crime, take responsibility for their actions and openly state that no one or circumstance made them do it?
The Geoffrey thesaurus is back.
“The Death of Stalin” gets the beginning of the end of Beria roughly correct, but skips over and changes the rest of his ending. The film gives significant coverage to Beria as an extreme serial rapist. That’s probably correct. Sociopath indeed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavrentiy_Beria#Sexual_predation
Agreed with j e, it is a heck of a thing and has caused me no shortage of problems with quote research.
But on some level as a Christian (albeit a rather tormented and nowhere-as-observant-as-ideal one) I do think that it makes sense. “Show me a man and I’ll show you the crime.” Who is without sin? Who does not have some crime to their name, moral if not criminal? (And even then, there is Three Felonies a Day talking about how many criminal laws are on the books..).
Which is one reason why the salvation through Christ comes not through avoiding sin entirely, but through atoning to it and seeking the mercy of One who will be willing to Suspend Judgement for what we have done.
And in a world view where there is nothing of that sort, then mercy becomes folly. Or worse, a dupe’s game.
It also underlines how potent weaponizing law enforcement can be, especially when the laws are prejudicially enforced by those in power.
j e (3:32 pm) observed, “many of the most amusing quotations commonly attributed to famous persons were never actually uttered by them.”
At least one quote-worthy wag agrees . . .
“I never said half the things I said.” — Yogi Berra
1) and 2) seem to apply to Mr. Obama, as well, and Joe Biden has always believed himself to be the smartest person in whatever room he is in, as well as believing that everyone is as corrupt as he is, so they apply to him as well. Alas, they seem to apply to the entire Democrat leadership.
“The Death of Stalin” is an excellent movie.
Fact: Stalin once told his daughter Svetlana that he didn’t want her to go anywhere near Beria.
Stalin, who actually did love Svetlana, knew Beria for what he was: a consummately evil man.
Lavrenti P. Beria (a Georgian just like Stalin was) also oversaw the murder of over 20,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in March, 1940 (the Katyn Forest Massacres). Of course FDR the Stalinist dupe bought into the Stalinist lie that it was the Nazis who committed the murders. NKVD officer Vassili Blokhin is estimated to have personally shot at least 7,000 Poles in the back of the skull. Beria also was a well known sexual predator of young girls.
Sir Winston Churchill is the most misquoted man in history followed by Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, and Stalin – in no particular order.
Well, #1 is absolutely true, because the principal is true of everyone – all other things being equal, people assume the same traits in others that they exhibit. Thieves will assume everyone else is always stealing things from them, etc.