Obit’s for a number of alcoholics: despot Kim Jong-il, soccer player-philosopher Socrates, author Christopher Hitchens, producer Bert (“Easy Rider”) Schneider and director Ken (“Altered States”) Russell.
Sometimes, it takes an addict:
Kim Jong-il, North Korean ruler since 1994, dead at age 69 or 70. I was a Ron Paul-style non-interventionist libertarian until I began studying alcoholism and realized there’s only one way to deal with an alcoholic sitting on nukes: take him out. (I’m with Paul on practically all domestic matters, as I believe it’s the height of arrogance to suggest I know better how to run your life and spend your money than you do—but not in this case, where his hands-off foreign policy is, I believe, naïve.) Kim is such a classic study of alcoholism and the abuse of power it’s hard to know which example of abuse to mention. However, three prime examples may ...
