The Irony of Authority

If not Hitler then who?

Throughout history, all dictators have ended their reign either in handcuffs or in a coffin. The problem with authority is that it feels that it is immortal and indestructible, blissfully unaware about the chronicles of history. The despot feels that his power is unending and infinite, under the garb of dominance. The “regime” so as to say, feels that their power can reverberate with the masses, you either have to smash comedy studios or end the comedian’s career. Free speech does exist under the despot as long as you say what the despot wants to hear. From Hitler to Stalin to Lenin to Pol Pot, no despot is ever remembered fondly and often become a label instead, for example “Please don’t act like Hitler”. When Hitler was in power and all the big corporations where funding his holocaust regime, free speech was never under threat because the opposition was never even allowed to speak in the first place, they were simply sent to the gas chambers. A lot of people think that Hitler took umbrage with the Jews, but that’s only half the truth. Hitler had an issue with every single person who disagreed with him, whether black or gay or brown, Hitler killed everyone judiciously.

What intrigues me even further are the supporters of such despots, blind semi-educated hate-filled bigots who have been forced to believe that all of their issues exist because of the proverbial “Jews” and that only their leader aka “Hitler” can solve this issue. Such bigoted ignoramuses pay taxes to their favorite despot but never hold him accountable; instead they hold the people who are not in power accountable. Stockholm syndrome is a medical condition that renders the “kidnapped” a fan of the “kidnapper”, the political synonym of this is called “bootlicking”. Bootlicking can have many benefits – money, power and prestige, but recently we can see all around us a new brand of bootlicking. A form of bootlicking with no benefits. Justin Timberlake starred in an extremely successful movie called “Friends with benefits”; the world right now is witnessing “Bootlicking without benefits”. The detractors are thrown to the gallows; the benefactors (who don’t even benefit) are ready to put their life on the line for their favorite despot. What could a Despot even want anymore? His enemies are not allowed to exist and his bootlickers are perpetuating his propaganda without even asking for pay. Indentured consensual labor is every despot’s wet dream and the bootlickers are more than willing.

I used to feel a great deal of anger towards these bootlickers and their revered despots but then I realized that these blind supporters have their own issues and they must be empathized with. They are employed at a place they do not like, they studied what society told them to, they married who their father told them to, so the range of autonomy in their life has been drastically reduced. The only way any amount of autonomy can be enjoyed is by “othering” those who disagree with their favorite despot. Autonomy for such bootlickers can be achieved or rather contrived by labeling and demonizing the “others”. Pol Pot used to euthanize all those wearing glasses as he thought that having glasses is a sign of being educated and hence public enemy number one. So a massively unemployed radical and bootlicking populace is ready to put their life on the line to protect a man who is already under no threat at all, can you feel the irony in your veins?

Hitler rose to power by proclaiming three sets of ideas:

1.      Germany and Christians are under threat.

2.      Jews are the reason for this, hence Eliminate Jews.

3.      Hitler is your only savior, if not Hitler then who?

And voila, holocaust achieved. The irony of all of this lies in the fact that in the end even Hitler had to kill himself. I have had to go out of my way and not mention a certain specific despot as doing so might bring unprecedented amounts of danger to my existence. Any resemblance with any person dead or alive is purely co-incidental.