An interesting view? You decide...

As may well be known I do read quite a bit, yes sometimes rubbish but mostly stuff that interests me. I read Quora but again I must say a lot of that is essentially, what you would call, cr*p. Sometimes though you read something interesting. Someone called Fred Bloggs, name not his own obviously but an attempt to stay anonymous. He (or she) had an interesting look upon the question of authoritarianism versus democratic government. He/she might even be a British citizen, seeing he/she used the word harboured and not the US spelling harbored. Whatever...

I quote: Because authoritarian states soon become failed states, and when that happens, they have a habit of making their internal problems, external problems. History teaches us this many times over. Here’s why… Firstly, it is important to understand that authoritarianism can come about for many different reasons: for example, through direct aggression (e.g., a coup, invasion) or even through democratic processes, when people are sufficiently motivated to (e.g., 1930’s Germany, where everyone was impoverished by reparations and the Wall Street Crash, and harboured resentments that a demagogue - in this case, Hitler - encouraged). Much of it has also to do with motivation of the individuals involved as well, as power is highly attractive, especially to those on the psychopathic spectrum. This inevitably leads to decay, as incompetence in leadership is never addressed. As an authoritarian leader becomes more ensconced, they ensure their leadership in perpetuity by erasing whatever checks and balances there may be on his or her power. Compare this with a system that allows an incompetent leader to be replaced, and you may draw the conclusion that such a system has possibly a better chance of running for the benefit of the people, rather than a powerful few.

Ultimately, a distraction is needed. And history tells us time and time again, that the method of choice of quelling dissent and unifying a autocratically-run country is……war. We saw this with Germany and Russia in the 1930s, and we’re seeing it again in Ukraine. While democracies do not always get things right (Blair supporting Bush’s war in Iraq springs to mind here, it is satisfying to know that Blair - hardly a demagogue, compared to Putin, at least knows that he is as welcome in the UK as a fart in a spacesuit), we know we have the power to put things right.

Surely, a very interesting look upon the present day, and the situation we find ourselves in. He/She finishes by saying: Our only problem these days is that too many people don’t value democracy. They see freedom of the press, the supremacy of the law and the courts, all the checks and balances, as a bureaucracy, instead of essential safeguards. And too often, those of us who should know better, allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security, and don’t fight with the single- (or simple-) mindedness of those in our society who are, frankly, driven by hate and prejudice, and the cynical politicians who exploit them for power.

And friends that is also the situation we find ourselves in, here in the UK. Spot on Fred.