Authoritarianism
From RationalWiki
"Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power." - George Orwell, 1984
"The seeds of oppression shall one day bear the fruit of rebellion."
Authoritarianism is a very interesting phenomenon. Its adherents don't necessarily want to "tell you what to do" - as long as, if they disagree with you, someone else in power will tell you what to do.
It is this honoring of power over reason that makes an authoritarian. The authoritarian loves rules, and loves to apply them.
On a site such as this, which is run as a mobocracy - that is, pretty much an anarcho-syndicalist arrangement - the authoritarian finds themselves lost, as we care more about the spirit of our "rules" than strict adherence to them.
People who are raised to strictly follow specific writings as unquestionable display a strong tendency towards authoritarianism. As such they are very dangerous to democracy and the health of any society in which they live.
[edit] In government
Authoritarian governments seek to perpetuate the power of the rulers. They will often use the fear of disorder to justify their rule, as in Egypt, under a continuous state of emergency since 1981.[1][2] State control over the media is also a common component of authoritarian control, as it allows the government to effectively control the populace's views, particularly of foreign events. Religious policies vary, ranging from theocracy[3] to complete suppression;[4] the common thread is the suppression of the potential threat posed by independent religious leaders[5]. Heavy-handed policing and arbitrary detention suppress any dissent that survives the government's other methods of control by placing the regime's opponents in government custody.
Some, like Jeanne Kirkpatrick, have tried to make a distinction between "authoritarian" and "totalitarian" regimes. The general idea is that authoritarian regimes still allowed for some (mostly economic) freedom, and thus could be reformed, unlike the completely dominating totalitarian ones. Many see this as a desperate attempt to make it OK for Ronald Reagan to support authoritarian regimes, while still blasting the Soviet Union on its human rights problems.
[edit] External links
- See the Wikipedia article on right-wing authoritarianism.
- Dr. Bob Altemeyer of the University of Manitoba has a free downloadable book called The Authoritarians.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Middle-East-and-North-Africa/Egypt
- ↑ And also in the United States, which has been in a continuous state of government-fed paranoia since 9/11.
- ↑ Iran
- ↑ North Korea
- ↑ see China's official Catholic church
