Dear Friends,
It seems to me, all of human history is nothing but a recount of why people, especially the elite, need to be limited in their ability to implement their stupid ideas on others. Among the multitude of problems with tyranny this is one of the worse. Too much power, in the hands of a despot, oligarch or bureaucrat will lead to absurdity. The lack of feedback mechanisms and unlimited power combine to make rulers insane. Such paradigms are epitomized by Sodom and Gomorrah, Athens and the modern West. Don’t think I’m only talking about sexual depravity, it’s the whole gambit of stupidity. The leaders of these and many other states, in history and many lost to history, were alike in that they had insane leaders with unlimited power… that ruined their prosperity, health and humanity.
There’s the tale of Caligula, the mad Roman emperor. Crazy as a bed bug he ruled with unlimited authority. Backed up by the Praetorian Guard. As is often the case with insane rulers, they have no personal power, they’re a post turtle. ‘You come upon a turtle on a post and you immediately know several things. One, the turtle didn’t get there itself, someone put it there. Two, it has no idea what to do once it’s there. Three, it’s terrified of falling off.’ – from the internet. In the case of Rome, it was the praetorian Guard that put him there. In the case of America, it’s the permanent government, the bureaucracy, deep state also called the administrative state… that put the post turtle Biden there. Our little Caligula, crazy as a tornado, inept at anything but graft, and a puppet in all but name.
History explains what happens to societies that are ruled by maniacs for long… they collapse in ruin. Usually historians record their demise as the result of an invasion, famine or revolution. Those are tangential exigencies, that didn’t lead to the collapse, but were the “feather” so to speak. The same city state, nation state or empire would have been immune to invasion while in their prime, famines come and go but they only lead to collapse once the society has uncoupled with reality, and revolution only happens when the people are fed up. Nations rise in virtue and fall in decadence. It’s the cycle of mankind, just as biological entities experiences periods of growth, stagnation and more growth. The same holds true for ecosystems. Man’s governance of himself is no different.
The Twentieth century’s lessons were unnecessary and unlearned. By 1920 the truth was obvious but too bitter for an elite that desired total power and control. Moreover, they convinced themselves they were smarter, wiser and more benevolent than Robespierre. So they set themselves to improving the lot of man… by slaughtering a large portion of it. Hitler thought himself a hero, Lenin believed killing people no different than breaking eggs, and the millions killed by Mao was a down payment on the reshaping of humanity itself, through eugenics, to make us more compliant, less individualistic, and therefore, better servants. The hubris of the elite back then resulted in crimes against humanity that boggled the mind… before our elites came out with Fentanyl, permawar, covid and the “vaccine.”
You and I are no different, born into a life without consequence for anything we do, convinced of our rightness, and drinking wine laced with lead… we’d likely become insane despots as well. It’s not the tyrant you see, that’s the problem, it’s the tyrant you don’t see, that’s the source of the problem. The power behind the throne enables insanity to triumph over sanity. Rome had the praetorian Guard, Stalin the KGB, and Biden the deep state. They all serve their purpose, to skim the nation of wealth and power. Eventually, the insanity gets bad enough that nation invites invasion, sets itself up for collapse, or the people get so fed up with the insanity, they revolt. No matter how it ends, insane leaders always lead the people to ruin, that’s why they need to be limited… unless history’s wrong.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
