If the downfall of such tyrants causes so much rejoicing and partying you have to wonder why tyrannies still exist and yet most forms of rule throughout history have been tyrannies or close to it. The best weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed and once the people are enslaved then they usually police themselves. Their own fear makes them betray others and by mental surrender to the state they believe they protect themselves and their families. It would take great courage to resist such a regime and those who have it and those who do resist become heroes.
In the beginning there is the laziness in the minds of the many and so much so that they may not even notice the taste of a new regime. Perhaps they are seduced by promises as they escape from what was before. They look up to and need this new 'strong leader' and perhaps they only realize the errors that they've collectively made when the sirens wail in the distance and they hear the heavy boots race up the steps and the men in overcoats take one of your family members away for questioning.
Getting rid of all of the opposition is the usual first step which is quickly followed by any dissenting voices. Mass graves, torture, rape, building up the military and starting wars. It's a route of madness that seems to have no end point other than the 'sad-demise' of the leader and this death usually comes by revolt, assassination or external forcible actions. I don't think I've ever heard of a tyrant who voluntarily gives up his power unless it is to his chosen successor and heir.
I've also never heard of tyrants promoting liberty, love and welfare, freedom of information or enlightenment. Most tyrants offer the usual 'bread and circuses' to keep everyone distracted and offer them a little contentment. Address your people Mr Tyrant and point your finger of blame to the foreigners outside of your borders and say that they are the reason for all of your internal problems. Create that sense of siege and let your people focus malcontent across borders and seas away from the true source of their ills. Fear is your instrument of control and you use it to destroy all of the 'would be heroes' of the resistance. Everyone does know that there are not enough secret police to kill all of the citizens if they chose to rise up all at once. Tyrants are usually sick and pale men hiding behind their medals and their bodyguards, walking across their palace balconies with an occasional wave to the fearful population.
When they do fall they all offer the same excuse of doing what needed to be done but the only mourners at the tyrants demise are those very few who stood to gain, his henchmen and his executioners.
Hitomi and I had a log chat about life the universe and everything and the answer strangely enough was only two and not forty two ! I spoke to her about the reasons behind my resignation from my current position and most importantly about the future. We spoke of Nietzsche, of good and bad and even of ascetic ideals. We spoke of hypotheticals and of some of the bad things in the world and ended on the good news that I had heard on Tuesday morning. She agrees with most of my decisions that I've made and has one or two ideas that could be wonderfully interesting.
And so the day ends with our imaginative dressing up and then the role play of my figuring out what to do with a sleeping cheerleader! Do you have imaginations? I'm not telling you what we did but perhaps we can get an interesting comment or two on what you'd like to do with a sleeping cheerleader!
I unashamedly need the ideas for a little project I'm working on so be liberal with them!
Out of chaos comes control, and it is through chaos and confusion of the masses that one can control a large body with very few to help. Has been proven many times in the past.
People are basically weak, especially a people that is used to being told what to do, how to do it and when to do, again a product of conditioning and "continued education" in how they are to live their lives and who they owe their lives to. It is nothing uncommon and more a fact of life in a lot of countries.
Sooner or later dictators and tyrants are replaced, either by force or death to pass their legacy on to their progeny to continue their beliefs and will on others. Even in a coup the change is rarely about freeing the people and giving them a better life, it is usually a handful that think they can enforce their idologies on the masses with minor changes within their doctrine. Same play, different actors. Nicaragua, Cambodia, Burma, Bolivia, Venezuela and numerous other countries are testiment to this fact, that change is not always for the better unless you are the one behind that change.
So life goes on and supression continues and people still suffer for lack of true change in their way of life and are given few choices to decide how they will lead their life. It is not surprising to me that North Korea is in the state it is now and it is always easier to point the finger away from the instigator of such perverted idiologies to hold them accountable for their suffering than it is for the one that is actually causing their misfortune, that is how you build the hatred that leads to wars, how you prime the populace into believing that if they strike out at those who they are led to believe that if by doing so that their way of life will get better and everyone will prosper from it.
Change comes from within and as long as they accept how they are ruled it will never change. Starve a people, beat them into submission, lie to them that it is not their governments fault but that of other countries and you will see a society accepting what they are fed. But it only takes one to start the process of change and therin lies the problem, they are suppressed at their first shouts of change. Like a chess game, take one piece at a time, sooner or later people will start to think that they are not strong enough to emplement a change and fall into a complacent submission.
One factor that we have concerning North Korea is the leash that holds this rabid dog at bay. China will not permit anything more right now than the baring of teeth, a bark and an occasional nip just to remind people that they are still there. Chained and caged. On the flip side, even a rabid dog knows how to dig itself out of the run and chains rust over time becoming weak. The dog needs watching and sooner or later it will have to be put down. That day is coming, but will it bring change when it does?
Later...
Ron
Smiling Pig ©
August 22, 2009 2:42 AM