Svetlana Stalina, who died on 22nd November 2011, always said that Stalin, her father, “broke my life”. Her troubled life illustrates how power coarsens, corrupts and corrodes family itself. Even in democracies, the relentless demands of power are wearying, then coarsening then corrupting. In the long reigns of despots, the more absolute, the more corrosive. The gentle ties of family are ground to dust by steel wheels of power. Men of power such as a Stalin or Hitler usually see themselves as selfless, lone knights riding with swords drawn into hostile territory. Even for those such as Colonel Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein or the Assads for whom politics is dynastic, power is paramount.
今年11月22日辭世的斯韋特蘭娜?斯大林娜(Svetlana Stalina)以往總是說，父親斯大林(Stalin)“毀掉了我的生活”。她坎坷的一生向人們揭示出，權力是如何破壞、腐化、侵蝕家庭的。即使是在民主國家，無止境的權力欲也是令人疲憊、進而起到破壞和腐蝕作用的。在暴君們的長期統治下，專制程度越高，這種腐蝕性就越強。家庭的溫情紐帶被權力的鐵輪碾得粉碎。大權在握者，比如斯大林和希特勒(Hitler)，往往將自己視為無私而孤獨的騎士，在佩劍縱馬前行時被吸引至敵人的疆土。即便對卡扎菲上校(Colonel Gaddafi)、薩達姆?侯賽因(Saddam Hussein)或阿薩德(Assad)家族這類人（在他們眼中，政治就等于王朝）來說，權力也有著至高無上的重要性。