The Necessity for Dictatorships; Alternatively, the Oak of Democracy

[Shiranu]

Firstly; this statement is intentionally controversial, because reality can often be controversial - it is my hope that it is not however in the way you likely think.

Imagine if you would a child who runs into the street; would one call the man who pulls him out of the way of traffic an authoritarian?

By definition he could fit this textbook definition; "one favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom."

Not one of us has worked for a non-authoritarian business; despite that, out of the thousands of problems one might have with the idea that our boss can dictate aspects of our behavior or life at work, we do not rally against the authoritarianism that effects us every day.

Nor do some insist that police need to be abolished not for the crimes they commit but rather the crime of existing at all - nor the doctors that we sign away our personal rights to, or the teachers who force us in school against our will as children.

The average human accepts that authority is a necessity part of life; so then if a nation of adult children continue to stumble in front of oncoming traffic, what makes the dictator different from the stranger who saves your child's life?

Both infringe upon the autonomy of others that the others might live and improve. In this the dictator becomes a father for a country - the head of the household of a nation-sized family, the central focus point at the end of the family table. Think of dictators such as Stalin, Saddam, the Kim family of Korea, the royalty of Saudi Arabia or the ayatollah of Iran; and on the positive side, kings like Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great of Thailand, Edgar the Peaceful, Cyrus the Great, Caliph Harun al-Rashid of Baghdad - all men who were viewed as fathers of the country, either through intimidation or through legitimate moral righteousness.

If a country has a populace who cannot govern themselves, these rulers become either a necessity or an inevitability - power is an inevitable magnet for certain members of society, and left unchecked it will by nature be grabbed by those most willing to grab it through the most horrible means. Some humans simply lack the capacity of empathy or ethics, either due to ignorance or dumb genetic luck; this is something that we have accepted as reality for thousands of years.

Thus a society is faced with two choices after a certain point of no return - allow the corrupt, the conniving, the conning cannibals who consume their comrades like carrion to control this power to the detriment of all but an elite few; or for an absolute ruler with moral character - Plato's Philosopher King - to guide their people to a philosophical "Promised Land" - or at the very least keep a roof over their head, food on their plate and violence to a minimum.

-----

The world works in cycles; everything flows as if with seasons.

Democracy springs forth, with life and hope and beauty and violent displacement from oppression. In the summer we reap it's crop that was planted with the bodies of revolutionaries and watered with the rains of blood of martyrs. In the fall, the weather turns - and crops begin to hibernate or to die. By winter, the hardy hold tight - the weak wither and hope their seed begins the cycle anew.

Democracy without morality, philosophy, education, rationalism, romanticism, logic, art and culture is a weak crop - and every season it can only hope that the seeds it spread receive the water and nutrient that allow them to burst forth and grow.

However democracy, when built upon a foundations aforementioned, is as a sturdy oak - thriving in time of peace, and dutifully weathering what ever harsh weather the seasons can muster. It's existence is not governed easily by the seasons but rather by it's innate strengths.

No government can defy nature; they cannot dig up an entire country to remove every last hardy seed - however much harm they might do, a people dedicated to planting the Oak and all other Great Crops will insure that they survive and leave legacies that can last long beyond their life time.

This becomes the role of the Philosopher King - to plant these seeds, though they may never see them grow, that their people might be well preserved and sheltered far into the future.

[Mike Cl]

In college I majored in history.  Most of my professors of history remarked that the best form of govt. was the benevolent dictator.  Here is an article that deals with that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_dictatorship

[Shiranu]

In college I majored in history.  Most of my professors of history remarked that the best form of govt. was the benevolent dictator.  Here is an article that deals with that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_dictatorship

I'm concerned how often people come to that conclusion - and that it does infact seem to be both logically and historically a sound statement.

[Mike Cl]

It does seem logical to me as well.  But the big problem is what follows that benevolent dictators rule.  Chaos too often ensues.

[Cassia]

It does seem logical to me as well.  But the big problem is what follows that benevolent dictators rule.  Chaos too often ensues.

Yes, it's unsustainable, even more so that democracies. And how many start out as "they are gonna be the benevolent leader" and in a short time half the government is dead.

[Shiranu]

That's just the nature of nature - we live in a universe that is governed by two fundamental laws; a law of Order, and a law of Chaos.

Every other law is just a branch off of these two trees; which one grows larger depends solely on the water and nutrient we provide.

Politics are just a (often nasty) reflection of society as a greater whole; if society is filled with hate, so too politics. If a society is filled with love, so too it's rulers.

Until ignorance of the mind, heart and soul are cured then it's foolish to expect a government to ever rule with a sound mind, heart or soul - whatever those words might be.

People have gotten too obsessed with politicians as their new messiahs.

Problem is that recognizing reality and doing anything about it are two very different things - I think that's what pushes so many people over the edge. Even the MAGA-crowd can see things are wrong; they are just both too weak to actually fix things and too ignorant to even know what the problems are in the first place. But fundamentally even in their ignorance they know "something" isn't right.