(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Despots never give up [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-07-10 “People can be imprisoned, but not their ideas. Dictatorships never seem to figure this out.” WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL, in THE SACRAMENTO BEE, 3/24/23 “Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.” O’Brien to Winston Smith, in 1984, by George Orwell The late 1980’s and early ’90’s were hopeful times worldwide for lovers of democracy. Not only did the Soviet empire collapse, as the Russians toppled their seemingly invincible dictatorship, and Soviet satellites renounced communism to set up fledgling democracies. South Africa’s unendurable burden of apartheid took on its last straw, and that country transitioned to a mostly peaceful multi-racial democracy. Chileans rejected their U.S.-imposed military junta. Even Red China underwent widespread protests as the economy shifted to private enterprise, which people in those days generally believed would lead to democratic reforms. Hopes ran high for human freedom. As always, the world failed to live up to the hope. Again, authoritarian rulers are on the rise the world over. The more selves take part in self-government, the better the system works—but it requires constant work—often boring, repetitive and frustrating—which must be done, if freedom is to be maintained. Those who lust after power depend on the general public’s boredom, frustration, and indifference to allow them to take power. Once they take power, they make every effort to ascertain that, no matter how burdensome life under tyranny might become, their subjects know there is nothing they can do about it. Taking and holding power is also hard work, but the reward—feeling powerful—apparently makes it worthwhile. At any rate, the powerful work hard to keep power. Feeling blessed to live in a still mostly free country, one of my major goals in life has always been to keep it that way. Since teenage I have watched for signs of fascism creeping into American institutions and American life. I try to understand why, then hopefully seek ways to prevent it. We have so far been skillful enough, our institutions have been strong enough, or we have simply been fortunate enough to stave off real despotism, though sometimes it looked awfully close. When people keep an eye on their representatives, hold them to governing instead of merely issuing commands, people-power grows, resulting in an overall healthy culture. But power of the people is always threatened by power-mad people. Those who lust for power never sleep. Now, three decades after those hopeful times I listed at the beginning of this story, China’s oligarchy seems impregnable and ready to expand, economically and militarily. Most of the Eastern European democracies have regressed, and several (led by Hungary) are moving toward becoming fully authoritarian. Russia, as the world knows, is now a genuine autocracy, having on one man’s orders brutally violated international law and contemporary common decency by invading Ukraine. Even in America, the bulwark of the Free World, our weakened democracy is under heavy attack from internal authoritarian forces. Notice how none of these trends toward dictatorship relate to communism. Though “Red” China still publicly pretends to uphold Mao’s political structure, China, like Russia, has in fact become a textbook example of a capitalistic oligarchy—exactly what Karl Marx urged working people to overthrow. Since private enterprise and dictatorship are quite compatible, we can now see that the adoption of capitalism, allowing certain individuals to accumulate excessive wealth, does not lead directly to democracy. In modern times, alliances between corporations and governments—which Mussolini defined as fascism—seem to be almost natural developments, which can only be arrested if the people band together to stop them. Fascists instinctively know this, and are constantly improving their efforts to prevent people from banding together. Russia’s attempted democracy lasted but a short time, while China kept the lid on protest tight enough to never get close to democracy. Both are plutocratic authoritarian states, ruled from the top down by fascistic practices. Rulers in both countries are steadily eliminating the last vestiges of internal popular resistance. Corporate power is on the attack worldwide, even in the United States, though here we see some hopeful signs that people are recovering power. Americans who slept through the decades-long takeover of government and society by corporate interests are awakening to a real threat. They have started speaking out, organizing, and voting in larger numbers than ever before. But this encouraging sign is partially lessened by the unfortunate fact that loyalists to fascism have been taking similar actions. Fascism promises law and order, with the additional incentive that individuals need not pay attention to public affairs. It promises that corporations, which are highly successful at producing and distributing goods and services, should be competent at providing a sustained and comfortable living for all people—the best for the most. The reality is different. When corporations take power, their directors install governments that ensure they will keep and increase that power, while freeing them to rob powerless citizens. When the scenario reaches its logical conclusion, one person will eventually accumulate authority over everyone. That individual will make society—including corporations—consolidate his power. There is no end. Ruling cliques go to great lengths to keep their subjects from knowing what really goes on behind their propaganda, and they are helped in their efforts by people who prefer to believe alternative facts favoring plutocratic fascism. We who insist on holding truth to higher measures have nearly always had a rough time. Difficult though the fight to see and tell the real truth has always been, we had better keep up the fight. People in Russia, China, and other oligarchic nations have a much harder time learning and spreading the truth than we do in still moderately functioning democracies. The idea that governments exist for the benefit of the governed and therefore must allow their subjects to express their thoughts and opinions without hindrance is quite new in human history, and in practice remains quite rare. Whenever self-government begins to catch on, addicts to power immediately, instinctively, begin plotting to reclaim that power. Yes, ideas, human creativity, and logic are potent and long-enduring, but so is the desire to suffocate all human thought. It matters not at all what labels despots use; they all follow the same playbook, in order to take, keep, and increase their power over others. Will Vladimir Putin continue to brutally attack and eventually bury any and all opposition, while at the same time he obliterates the Ukrainian people? Will Xi Jinping eventually annihilate Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, to keep and enhance his absolute power? Will the Iranian mullahs at last break the resistance of half their population, bringing women (and men with them) back into total submission? In many nations the world over, including ours, similar questions can be asked. Some people must think for themselves, and have always struggled for the right to express their thoughts. Similarly, autocrats have always fought to make critical thinking a crime. In between are those who simply want to be left alone, to be untroubled by the problems of others, or society as a whole. The challenge for both thinkers and thought-killers is to gain the support of those who prefer not to participate in running a society. One side tries to awaken them to the reality that they are part of the whole, like it or not. The other side wants to keep them asleep. The battle is for real. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/10/2180301/-Despots-never-give-up Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/