Big Brother in the ICU

Hugo Chavez is back in Venezuela, dying slowly. Like his friends the Castros, he continues to hang on, and thus to hang over his nation's politics. His aides say his condition is "delicate," but what does that mean. Is he able to make any decisions? If not, who is making them for him?

The lingering deaths of these strongmen, the surreal intersection of authoritarian politics and modern medicine, fill me with woe. I imagine a future of dictators on life support, creaking along for decades, pronouncing death sentences from amidst their tubes and beeping machines. I think of Mobutu Sese Seko, wasting away from cancer while Zaire spiraled downward into anarchy. How long might Stalin's final illness lasted have today? Might he have emerged into lucidity every so often to spit fire and have a few more people shot, or would somebody eventually have smothered him?

UPDATE: Looks like "in delicate condition" is Venezuelan for "already dead." So at least the saga of Hugo Chavez is over. But the Castros live on, and the problem of lingering at the edge of death remains for all offices that people hold for life -- Queen of England, Pope, Supreme Court Justice.