I mean, Zimbabwe's long-serving dictator Robert Mugabe was a high school teacher. Let that be a lesson to you. Your teachers may have dictatorial ambitions. But most strongmen have emerged, of course, from the military. Joseph Mobutu seized power in the Congo, which he held from 1965 until his death in 1997. Idi Amin was military dictator of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Muammar Gaddafi ruled Libya from 1977 until 2011.