Historian #Fail

Laurent Gbagbo looks scared. He should be. The mini-tyrant is another history teacher who learned nothing from it. A historian by profession, the Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) strongman installed himself as president in 2000 and ruled until his arrest at gunpoint in his bunker today. Once obtained, power always becomes a narcotic for self-proclaimed saviors. And for history's long line of Gbagbos, the downfall inevitably ends in a bunker. Steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie once praised the virtues of self-confidence by saying, "Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs." But, as Gbagbo again demonstrates, such certainty too often breeds corruption, the handmaiden of delusion.