Dear Friends,
It seems to me, to an authoritarian, coercion is the only imaginable solution to any problem. They’re a craftsman with one tool. A club. A tool they use to bash everything and everyone into compliance. Other tools, like discourse, cultural solutions or leading by example, are unthinkable to most elites. They’re authoritarians at heart. Elites don’t put themselves through hell and high water to get authority… to lead by example. They did it to hammer us into compliance. They could’ve led by example without power. Moreover, the problems a despot sees are going to be different from the problems you and I see. Because they have a different perspective. So they’ll apply that club to problems that don’t effect us, but will, after the authoritarian is done “solving” them into the ground.
Anyone can be an effective authoritarian… all they need to have, is a Gestapo willing to apply violence to the public, a public that takes it, and the pathology to do it. A simpleton can be a despot… and many have been, and are. To lead by example, persuade, and see cultural solutions, requires wisdom, humility and human heartedness. Those are attributes lacking in our elites today. They have psychopathy in glut… but wisdom is rare as road cooked opossum. So our elites are authoritarians. They can’t be anything else. Authoritarians have a tongue, and teeth, but only use their teeth. Without the wisdom to persuade, the human heartedness to lead by example, or the intelligence to see other answers, they’re perfect for the positions they hold. Stupid, short sighted and barbarian elites.
Myth always has brutes wielding clubs. The Cyclops used a club. Because the club is considered a brutish weapon. It takes little craftsmanship to create nor finesse to swing. Indeed clubs can be found laying on the ground. Which makes the club an ideal analogue for the power of coercion. The brute may inherit power. Then he simply bashes his victims into submission. Using force when subtlety might work better. But a brute doesn’t see options other than to smash with his club. Making authoritarianism a club wielded by brutes. Moreover, authoritarians are like the cyclops, in that they’re brutish, lack depth perception and are easily blinded. What makes the analogy even more apt, is authoritarians are the incarnation of appetite… like the Cyclops of myth.
People who live on a remote island have a different perspective from people who live in a city. Just as those who are industrious see things differently from people who are workshy. We see the world from our perch in it. Since we all have different perches, we all have different perspectives. Those perspectives combine in the aggregate to inform us of truth. The power of the club however allows only one perspective to be voiced. The one with the club. Others face hammering. Because the one with the club sets the rules… and the rest of us don’t have clubs. Moreover, people wielding clubs aren’t subject to persuasion. Why should they be? They have the club. As a result, in the aggregate we become nearsighted, can’t see the future and are easily blinded. Out of our elite’s authoritarianism.
The disagreeable love clubs. So our governments, corporations and all hierarchies are brutes. Even as the club they wield blinds them to reality. Plus, why should an elite lead by example, when they have the club? Once someone is handed a club, it’s hard not to use it. Especially because we see, what we see, close at hand, while we only hear what others see, by gossip. Making our perspective the only one that counts, to us… and if we have the club, we become the Cyclops. Clubs have a way of doing that. The only way to solve the dilemma is to lead by example and stop applying clubs to those below us. First in our own lives. Then persuade others to eschew the club. If we can make coercion as uncommon as a two parent family and distasteful as dog vomit… we’ll have made the world a better place.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
