The Worst Sort Of Tyranny

The threat of institutionalized tyranny rides on the notion that government can and should be good, and not just best.

People all around the political spectrum love to look at the other side and point out tyrants.  The right points to the likes of Stalin and Castro while the left to Franco and Pinochet.  I didn't mention Hitler and Mussolini because neither side will claim them.  The thing about individual tyrants though is that their tyranny doesn't outlive them.  Franco and Pinochet left free nations in their wakes and to be fair we don't yet know what Castro will leave behind.  We do know what Stalin left behind.  Russia continued to be tyrannized for several decades after his death, and that leads me to my point.

No, it's not to say communism is bad, though anyone who knows me knows I believe that.  It's something much more generally useful than that to identify.  Something I call "institutionalized tyranny".  yourdictionary.com defines tyranny as "a government or ruler with total power".  Institutionalized tyranny is when a government and not just one person has total power.  This is what Soviet Russia had, and it made it such that the tyrants could not simply be waited out.  There were institutions in place guaranteeing the tyranny would continue no matter who was in charge.

The reason this point is so much bigger than saying "communism is bad" is because institutionalized tyranny threatens all of our modern forms of government.  Everyone all around the political spectrum must be on watch to prevent it from taking hold wherever we live.  We must be able to recognize it when we see it, both when it's forming and when it's already here to some degree.

Tyranny's Champion

The easiest and most useful sign of institutionalized tyranny is the use of the term "greater good".  e.g. "So you're forced to do something you don't want, it's for the greater good."  The "greater good"'s more legitimate but also dangerous cousin is the "lesser evil".  The "lesser evil" unfortunately exists at times like in war for example, but the "greater good" doesn't ever, at least not in a civil context. 

The greater good is simply a lie, or in some cases a dangerous delusion.  It's premise is that some great objective is so good that other competing goods should be forced aside.  The problem with this is that good is not an objectively measurable quality.  It's a subjective thing.  That means someone or some group of people will decide what they think this greater good is and if it's accepted they effectively rule without any limits other than the ones they choose to place on themselves.  Thus whoever has the power to decide these things has total power.  This not only makes them tyrants but their ideas become institutionalized so that the resulting tyranny can outlive them.  Tolerating the assertion that there is such a thing as the greater good is to allow tyranny to be imbedded into a society in the form of institutions.  The notion of a greater good is very possibly tyranny's greatest tool towards making itself part of any government.

All government is based on the sound assumption that we must give up something in return for some civil stability.  "Good government" is the lesser of evils between itself and civil disorder.  A better term for this would be "best government" as there really isn't such a thing as "good government" as government requires that we give up some of our freedoms and resources.  Even the communist utopia would do away with government.  Of course there are some who believe government can be good or "cool" as President Obama termed it, but they are part of the threat I'm trying to warn people about.

The threat of institutionalized tyranny rides on the notion that government can and should be good, and not just best.  Once government is seen as the only reasonable means to a good ends and that good is deemed greater than others, we will then have tyranny planted firmly within not only the institutions of government but that of society as a whole.  At that point only powerful persuasion bordering on insurrection will be able to turn tyranny back before its ugliness manifests.  I say "bordering on insurrection" because that is the line we must painfully be aware of not to cross unless it is absolutely necessary, for if it comes to that, we know from history, the rebels may win their wars but often still lose their countries.  We must take our stand with words against the lie of the "greater good" and win that fight before it comes to blows for the latter method is far less sure.

Other Signs Of Tyranny

Wherever you are and whatever your causes, if you cherish individual dignity and liberty, bury the "greater good" for it is the vanguard of the worst sort of tyranny.  There are other tyrannizing tactics to be wary of such as inventing a crisis, distorting a crisis, and class warfare but if we drive a stake through the heart of the "greater good" these other tactics become almost trivial challenges.  Without the "greater good" the best solution to most crises is clearly a temporary one and not an institutional change, and the clearest best solution to any perceived wealth distribution problem is never direct government intervention.  You can't justify taking someone's property from them to distribute to others without a "greater good" argument.  One could say the greater good is the head of the snake.  Crush it and the rest follows.