The Enduring Appeal Of Tyranny
Why democracies always end by re-instating humanity’s preferred form of social organization
More than 2,400 years ago the Hellenic philosopher Plato wrote that democracy must always end in tyranny because ordinary people lack the intellectual capacity necessary avoid being gulled by some glib-talking demagogue. He felt democracy was a terrible approach to self-governance and, let’s be honest, he was entirely correct. Unfortunately his supposed solution was as impractical as any nonsense subsequently conjured into existence to justify even worse ways to govern. Moreover, Plato thought that the demagogue was the problem; in fact, it’s hardwired human behavior that leads people to yearn for a tyrant they can obey.
Today we’re at the end of the road for our largely accidental Western attempt to force-fit representative democracy onto the complexities of a highly technological inter-connected world in which rapid change is one of the few constants. In the USA Trump will destroy the last vestiges of civil society and Make ‘Murka Safe Again for dictatorship. All across Europe, far-right populist Parties are working toward the same outcome in their own nations, thanks to ever-larger numbers of citizens clamoring for a “strong” leader. Most of Africa is tribal dictatorship with the thinnest façade of…
