Western Authoritarianism

The original question was: “What lies at the root of the authoritarianism that seems to be asserting itself in free societies in today’s West?”

Here’s my answer:

The same root that causes irritating busybodies to take over Home Owner Associations. Some people have a lust for power. Government is the ultimate well of power. Author Frank Herbert expressed it well:

“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.”


Also:

“When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong – faster and faster and faster.”

Leftism is itself a religion, complete with an Eden (Earth), an original sin (Capitalism), and a god (government – aka “power over others.”) Another quote I’m fond of by a gentleman by the name of Glenn Wishard:

“The rise and fall of the Marxist ideal is rather neatly contained in the Twentieth Century, and comprises its central political phenomenon. Fascism and democratic defeatism are its sun-dogs. The common theme is politics as a theology of salvation, with a heroic transformation of the human condition (nothing less) promised to those who will agitate for it. Political activity becomes the highest human vocation. The various socialisms are only the most prominent manifestation of this delusion, which our future historian calls “politicism”. In all its forms, it defines human beings as exclusively political animals, based on characteristics which are largely or entirely beyond human control: ethnicity, nationality, gender, and social class. It claims universal relevance, and so divides the entire human race into heroes and enemies. To be on the correct side of this equation is considered full moral justification in and of itself, while no courtesy or concession can be afforded to those on the other. Therefore, politicism has no conscience whatsoever, no charity, and no mercy.”

When your quest is to drag the rest of the world, kicking and screaming, into your utopia, authoritarianism is the way to get there. Never mind that you’re enabling the most greedy, rapacious and psychopathic to grab the levers of power.

In short, it’s human nature.

11 thoughts on “Western Authoritarianism

  1. To your average Commie, this is all considered a feature, Kevin, and they aren’t bright enough to think of what you’ve explained as being a bug.

    They know what they want and having a real-time replay of The Killing Fields is just fine with them…yes, sociopaths.

    1. yeah if you are smart you will be looking food sources that do not depend on grocery store shelves.
      Look for local farm markets and the like. But even that is threaten. Fertilizer is harder to get of late I understand. Beef/pork producers are having a hard time getting processors to handle there herds. Especially the small local ones.
      All part of the plan

  2. I’ve always believed in the honesty of following the Ten Commandments and have often felt that if we replaced gommermint with the Ten Commandments and a sound moral compass we would all be a lot better off. But then there’s that human nature thing creeping in to muck up the works.
    So I’ve come to the conclusion that by following this bit of wisdom I’m much better off and able to function in the world I’m stuck in.

    I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them to obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.
    Robert A. Heinlen

  3. A fundamental truth is that the stated desire to hold office is for 99.9% of people an automatic disqualifier for holding office. Virtually everyone who seeks office does so
    because they have an innate desire to control others. Normal people AVOID positions
    that have power over others whenever possible.

  4. i’d agree but for one point. capitalism is not the original sin to the left. racism (however defined to meet the moment) is the original sin in the minds of the left. advocating for capitalism will not get you thrown out of polite society. on the other hand merely acknowledging white people as a distinct group with distinct political interests not couched in the language of universalism is a sin so mighty that no elected official from sea to shining sea is allowed to think it for even a second. speaking of it, is enough to be booted off of every internet platform. in a dozen european countries it is pretty much illegal. leftists are perfectly find with woke capital, they are happy to wield it to suit their own purposes. 15, 20 years ago i might have agreed with kevin on this, but the lead up to the obama election made the evidence overwhelming

    1. It’s not so much that racism is the Cardinal Sin, as it is the current way Capitalists are pilloried for being Capitalist. If you look closely at the arguments of a Leftist, you’ll see their anger about racism isn’t about racism itself — indeed, you have to look no further than to see what they have to say about Clarence Thomas, or Thomas Sowell, or Candace Owens, to see that they are more than willing to embrace racism, when it suits their purposes — they “hate” racism because it’s a tool to fight the Bourgeois, who have the gall to be rich, or sometimes even just “middle-class”, somewhat independent of government, with a healthy network of friends and family, and who happen to be, more often than not, pale-skinned — and who, because of that pale skin, can be beaten over the head with the cudgel of slavery, since some white Democrats held some dark-skinned people as slaves.

      Never mind that some of these people are dark-skinned, or even former slaves. Never mind that some of these people are first-generation immigrants from Africa. Never mind that some of these people are Asian, or American Indian, or actual Indian, or any number of backgrounds. If they succeed, it’s because they are “acting white”.

      It’s all anti-Capitalist, dressed up to look acceptable to people who aren’t paying attention.

      Many of us, however, have caught onto the game, and just like the word “fascism”, we understand that the word “racist” means “you don’t like my ideas — and in particular, you don’t like my efforts to support the Free Market”.

      Also, don’t let the fact that Corporate America embraces this fool you — you will find that a surprisingly large Communists are idle rich people who couldn’t care less about the Working Class, except as a vehicle for them to get into power, where they can establish their “Utopia”, no matter how many people get killed in the process, and of those who aren’t rich (Marx in particular comes to mind), they couldn’t be bothered to get up and work, so instead just leech on the generosity of those around them.

      Also, it’s a mistake to consider “whites” as a distinct group — heck, it’s a mistake to consider any group “distinct” based solely on their skin color — because when you drill down via all those “intersectionalities”, you’ll always find an individual. And many of those individuals are not what you would expect, based on skin color alone. (Indeed, Democrats have the power they do in no small part because of all the white people who vote for them, and they sometimes even struggle to keep power because of the non-whites who decide to stop voting for them.)

  5. I have to disagree with Frank Herbert: “All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.”

    I have seen studies that show the part of the brain involved in empathy actually shrinks with the exercise of great power. This makes sense; if you have power over many people, you will not be able to to think through how your exercise of power will affect each individual. Some people will “get caught in the gears”. If you feel for the hurt you’ve caused each individual who did not fit your assumptions, you won’t be able to continue functioning. So you learn to limit and suppress your empathy. (And this is the best case scenario, where you actually were entirely good-intentioned, rather than starting as a con artist, or drawing lines between friends and enemies and working to hurt your enemies.)

    What is an inability to feel empathy called? Sociopathy or psychopathy depending on the severity.

    Power not only attracts the corruptible, but it moves the powerful further towards sociopathy than they started.

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