To judge a man by Archit

To judge a man by Archit - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

Joseph Stalin. Communist. Maniac. Mass murderer. Paranoid dictator. Literally worse than Hitler. Yet often a brilliant man, strategically, and mentally. What exactly could drive such a man to consume the lives and souls of so many of his fellow human beings? Is he even human himself? Does he dine with the devil? What sets this man apart from me?
If someone had constructed a scale on which to weigh the hearts of all mankind, it could be that you'd find Mother Teresa at one end and Joseph Stalin at the other. Most of us would love to sit down and have a delightfully insightful experience with Mother Teresa about the role of humanity and the part each of us have to play in it over a wonderful assortment of platters, but that is not what I would seek. Against my better judgement, I would seat myself opposite Joseph Stalin, up there with Kublai Khan and Adolf Hitler as one of the least empathetic, most vicious, and most cruel leaders to have ever existed.
The question I would be seeking to answer by the end of the night would be, "What makes a person so insane as to murder thousands of people for up to no reason?" It's almost like an introspection into the soul, to see the depths of the cruelty of humanity and simply observe. I often do wonder what makes people like Stalin and Mother Teresa so different from each other. Is it genetics? Is it a stubborn mindset? Is it spiritual enlightenment? Is it the sum of thousands of chance experiences and random environmental factors leading to a specific universe where you become the most feared dictator of your day? Or is there really no noticeable difference in such people?
Another thing I would like to see about him is the corruption of power. Stalin, like most people, likely acted very differently with his subjects than he did when alone with his wife or a close friend. The most intriguing part of this dinner would be to see how he would act one-on-one, so vulnerable, with no need to impress me and no need to intimidate me. Would he still have his steely cold demeanor? Would he dominate the conversation, or would he refuse to even speak to me? Perhaps he's a softie on the inside, and he enjoys actively conversing with equals. Whatever he does, I'm sure I can gain a lot of insight on how such powerful, dangerous men behave when they can just be themselves.
A curious line of questioning I would like to bring him under would be questions you would be more likely to ask someone on a date. What is your favorite color? Whom in history do you idolize the most? What is your favorite book? I think it would be very enlightening to find out that maybe he enjoys the color lilac, respects the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, and loves Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland. I doubt he does, but the minds of people can be very contradictory. Some criminals can enjoy children's books and love good food, just like the rest of us.
In all, I'd find it interesting to take one of the most reviled leaders in human history and place him in a light that probes at his human roots. I'd like to take him out of the biases of other people and strip him down to the mass of flesh and bones he is. I want to see what makes him tick. Only then can I judge him as a person. And knowing whether he is corrupted to the deepest edges of his soul would tell me a lot about humanity in general and just how twisted we can become. Once upon a time, loose morals were tight morals that loosened over time. If I had the opportunity, I would love to find out how those morals were loosened and if they even still exist. How far can we truly go?