Far right and tyranny: the dangers of voting for extremist governments
Polls indicate a growing proportion of young people who want to vote for the far right. Perhaps they should ask themselves what the far right would do if, for example, Trump decreed that, for the good of the Empire, not only were scholarships cut—that is, military spending increased to 5% of GDP—but also mandatory military service reinstated. They should also know that if they no longer liked this and wanted to protest, the far right would prevent them from doing so, for the good of the Empire and Spain's service to the Empire's vassalage. Who would defend them from tyranny then? No one, unless they themselves reorganized to defend their rights and freedoms, so absurdly lost to those who can enjoy democracy today but prefer to vote for tyranny tomorrow.
The example of the Roman Empire: tyranny vs. good government
Perhaps they should know that the history of the Roman Empire is a history of tyranny. Of the 160 Roman emperors of the East and West, history has only credited about a dozen as good rulers, while the vast majority ruled as mediocre tyrants or simply insane. Of the nearly 500 years of the Western Empire, history only highlights about eighty years as... the golden age of the Empire Under Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, the economy prospered, the administration was stable with reasonable corruption, and the Empire was relatively peaceful. The rest is a history of corruption, violence, and tyranny that we have only been able to overcome thanks to the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason and the triumph of reason and democracy in defeating tyranny. Thanks to this, when we have had a bad ruler, simply by voting—and not by staging a revolution and shedding innocent blood—we can change him, and that's the end of it!
That this danger of falling into the hands of bad or simply mediocre rulers is a golden rule that still holds true is a fact, and the only antidote we have is the replacement of bad officials with others who can do better every four years. In fact, this is what is expressed in the book. The hour of the predators, by Giuliano da Empoli, comparing the current political state with the world of political series, where The West Wing It represents the best democratic way of doing politics as a virtuous competition between generally competent and well-intentioned people; House of Cards It represents politics as a Hobbesian jungle in which no one is innocent and in which the only rule is survival; The Thick of It Veep It represents political life as it is: a perpetual comedy of errors, in which characters, almost always ill-suited to the roles they are meant to play, try to extricate themselves from situations that are always unexpected, often absurd, and sometimes ridiculous. According to Da Empoli, in current politics, the probability of encountering situations The West Wing It is 10% of 20% of House of Cards and 70% of The Thick of It Veep. Therefore, given these percentages, we need democratically open systems to allow for fresh air and a more positive atmosphere. Tyranny that blocks change is not an option, and it will most likely perpetuate the power of the most mediocre, corrupt, and wicked individuals!
The vaccine against tyranny: vigilant citizens and active democracy!
The danger of falling into tyranny is ever-present. We must remember the words of President Eisenhower in his farewell address on January 17, 1961: "(...) Only an alert and well-informed citizenry can compel the proper combination of the gigantic defense-industrial-military machine with our peaceful methods and objectives, so that security equals danger, and since public policy may fall captive to a scientific-technological elite (...) We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the bankrupt ghost of tomorrow (...) Together we must learn to resolve our differences not with weapons, but with intelligence."
There is a sense that today we have a citizenry alienated by consumerism and the disinformation of social networks dominated by large American corporations at the service of the Empire; that the technological-military complex in the hands of these same American corporations has taken power in Washington, and that today the most shameless face of the American Empire is already showing itself without complexes in a world of predators.
Last Friday, January 9th, in his Christmas greeting to the diplomatic corps at the Vatican, Leo XIV said: "We must defend the culture of peace in an age of predators," and then recalled the work of Saint Augustine. The City of Godwhere it says: "Within this world of barbarians we must resist with the Christian values of justice and peace," precisely the same values defended by the Charter of the United Nations. It also says: "By their fruits you will know them..."—those values defended by tyrants!