The orderly escape of “Baby Doc” Duvalier from his people’s wrath prompts idealistic thoughts about the desirability of a well-ordered world, and realistic ones about its unlikelihood. The trouble with the former (idealism) is that unless it is tempered by the latter (realism), it usually makes matters worse than they need have been.
“Papa Doc” plundered and terrorized his half of the island of Hispaniola. “Baby Doc” and his physically attractive wife continued with the plundering but had less stomach for the terrorizing. That tends to be the way with second-generation tyrants (vide the Somozas of Nicaragua). Enduring power through terror is best achieved through an all-powerful, tentacular party with a legitimizing ideology (ask Gorbachev).
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