Penny Thoughts: Tyranny in the Twenty-First Century

The despotism of faction is not less to be dreaded than the despotism of an
individual.
– De Tocqueville

The term “tyranny” has bombarded us during this sordid and sad presidential election campaign. Neither party can claim a monopoly on citing charges of tyranny on their counterparts. The evolution of its meaning and application has meandered a winding path and is worth examining.

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines “tyranny” as follows:
A government by a ruler or small group of people who have unlimited power over the people in their country or state and use it unfairly and cruelly.

In American history, we see the original tyranny our colonists viewed as the oppressive measures King George was exercising against them in the form of unfair taxation and arbitrary applications of power. Yet even then, in discussions throughout the legislative bodies of the various colonies, the view of de Tocqueville that voices tyranny at a distance by a single ruler is no more to be feared than tyranny by a group nearby.

When a group of liberty-loving people have become saturated with consistent and capricious applications by any governing entity to the exclusion of their livelihoods and their very beings, the ensuing unrest can foment into rebellion.  Obviously, such conditions prompted the American Revolution. The French Revolution, which was horrendously bloody, was similar in its development to America’s Revolution but was compounded by the fact that the general population had been left out of the French system of capitalism.

In our American culture, there are two locutions which seem diametrically opposed, but which have been amazingly compatible in their applications.  One is the belief in self-reliance, “rugged individualism”, and doing it on one’s own.  The other is the Biblical admonition to “help thy neighbor”. The balance has been achieved through a recognition that in a sound societal structure, both can and must be practiced, but when one becomes predominant to the exclusion of the other, a tyranny emerges.

Tyrannies always enjoy success when they have enough support from the citizenry, but short of that, if they have compromised the information outlets to become their verifiers, in a sense, they essentially control not only the conversation but the attitudes, as well. Factually, this is what has happened today in America. The mainstream media have become the voice of the Democratic Party and the major technological platforms have censored any opposition to their positions.

In his great work, Second Treatise of Government, Chapter 18: Of Tyranny , John Locke warns that it is a mistake to assume that tyranny can only occur in a monarchy, as other forms of government can act in tyrannical ways as well. Whenever the government is used to “impoverish, harass, or subdue” the people, this is tyranny. “Wherever the law ends,” Locke says, “tyranny begins.”

Thus, our notions of tyranny have moved from a despotic King, to a cabal of elites who have banded together to control and influence practices of governing, to what we have today: A single political party which has corrupted a system of election, so unimaginable previously that somehow we did not even listen to those who gave full  and dire warnings to  such abuse because we could not conceive that it could happen in America.

Citizens just did not want to believe it because most people so hated our President that they dismissed it out of hand. We will reap what we have sown.

America has been the cook…now America must eat it!

When a people cease to accept their responsibility of being citizens in a Republic, they will lose their liberty without even knowing it and may even call it “progressive” or, in a naïve context, “the new normal”.  It becomes a different breed of tyranny, but still does what tyrannies have always done; seek and devour everything in their insatiable quest for power.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of The West Alabama Watchman.