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I believe that all societies go through a cycle known as the tyranny cycle. It has been going on for thousands and thousands of years. Here is how it works:
1) Liberty (when a population first begins a new nation/state and breaks away from an oppressive one)
2) complacency (After many decades or a couple centuries, the population has lived for so long they cannot imagine real tyranny could exist in their own society. So arbitrary laws are created that slowly tear away at freedoms and liberties
3) Dependency (usually following financial hard times or other civil strife, government steps in, promises equality, safety, etc. and only requires that the population allows them to help, or depend on the government for happiness in life.
4) Tyranny (Eventually, somebody or several somebody's takes power with bad intentions. He is power hungry and slowly starts to enforce his/their authoritarian or iron fist rule. people begin to feel oppressed
5)Revolution (usually a bloody conflict where the people take back their liberty and bring in new leaders
And the cycle begins again.
To me, this sums up all of history and the rise and fall of almost every civilization of the past.
Would you all agree or disagree?
Do you think tyranny can still happen in modern western nations? I get the feeling that a lot of people I speak to think that tyranny couldn't take root anymore and that it's a thing of the past.
"My fingers are shaking as I write this. Everyone in now turning their backs on Adolf. No one was ever a supporter. Everyone was persecuted and no one denounced. What about me? I was there. I breathed what was in the air. It affected all of us.
This is not the story of how Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany. This is the story of HOW and WHY the German people gave it to him.
It's easy to throw stones. Easy to sit in judgment while in the midst of abundance. Roast chicken and the good life. We'd do differently people say. We would have long since cast off dictatorship of Nazi Terror. Would they really have?
Some of what you will see has never been shown on American television before. And some of it cannot be seen in Germany even today. These are their words. Their films. This is the rise of the 3rd reich.
There had once been another war. And another German defeat. If you were German in 1919 your peace was humiliation and suffering. Money was worthless. Vigilantes ruled the streets. Berlin had become a swamp of depravity. Everything. And everyone was for sale. The atmosphere has become revolutionary. Apocalyptic. Not only money, but all standards have loss their values.
Saviors have appeared everywhere, claiming that they have been sent to god to save the world. Each was called a heilent, or savior, but in German there is no plural word for savior. There can be only one.
Most Germans thought of Hitler as too radical. If they thought of him at all. But in less than 3 months, Wall Street would crash. And take the German economy down with it. Within a year, the Nazi's would be one of the largest political parties in Germany.
While we descended into misery and called anxiously for a savior. He emerged. Like a mountain. Columns march. Drums beat. And 100,000 men stand firmly gathered around 1 man. Now, build up your people oh master, a great fatherland awaits.
To answer your question, yes it can happen in the Western world. 70 years is a blink of an eye in the context of history.
In fact, I dare say that, although HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY unlikely, a country like the United States with fantastic living standards and a strong military could be a candidate. If the American hegemony were to collapse, and the dollar lost its status as a reserve currency, there's no telling what may happen when a country in such a lofty position has its back pushed against the wall for its survival.
It has happened in history. And forever is a long time. It will happen again.
Last edited by Thatsright19; 12-03-2015 at 07:00 AM..
I believe that all societies go through a cycle known as the tyranny cycle. It has been going on for thousands and thousands of years. Here is how it works:
1) Liberty (when a population first begins a new nation/state and breaks away from an oppressive one)
2) complacency (After many decades or a couple centuries, the population has lived for so long they cannot imagine real tyranny could exist in their own society. So arbitrary laws are created that slowly tear away at freedoms and liberties
3) Dependency (usually following financial hard times or other civil strife, government steps in, promises equality, safety, etc. and only requires that the population allows them to help, or depend on the government for happiness in life.
4) Tyranny (Eventually, somebody or several somebody's takes power with bad intentions. He is power hungry and slowly starts to enforce his/their authoritarian or iron fist rule. people begin to feel oppressed
5)Revolution (usually a bloody conflict where the people take back their liberty and bring in new leaders
And the cycle begins again.
To me, this sums up all of history and the rise and fall of almost every civilization of the past.
Would you all agree or disagree?
Do you think tyranny can still happen in modern western nations? I get the feeling that a lot of people I speak to think that tyranny couldn't take root anymore and that it's a thing of the past.
thoughts please.
It sums up the rise and fall of no civilizations past or present. The concept of "liberty", ie self government, was foreign to virtually all civilizations except some of the Greek city-states and the early Roman republic until the emergence of the US in 1783.
Furthermore, how can any nation claim to have "freedoms and liberties" when part of its population is enslaved and can be bought and sold like horses and cattle?
Your "cycle" is poppycock, and it's nothing more than a thinly veiled right wing "critique" of what's wrong with the US today that totally ignores any facts -- like slavery -- that don't fit its preconceived philosophical mindset. Put that in your self-righteous, delusional "historical" bong and smoke it.
I believe that all societies go through a cycle known as the tyranny cycle. It has been going on for thousands and thousands of years. Here is how it works:
1) Liberty (when a population first begins a new nation/state and breaks away from an oppressive one)
2) complacency (After many decades or a couple centuries, the population has lived for so long they cannot imagine real tyranny could exist in their own society. So arbitrary laws are created that slowly tear away at freedoms and liberties
3) Dependency (usually following financial hard times or other civil strife, government steps in, promises equality, safety, etc. and only requires that the population allows them to help, or depend on the government for happiness in life.
4) Tyranny (Eventually, somebody or several somebody's takes power with bad intentions. He is power hungry and slowly starts to enforce his/their authoritarian or iron fist rule. people begin to feel oppressed
5)Revolution (usually a bloody conflict where the people take back their liberty and bring in new leaders
And the cycle begins again.
To me, this sums up all of history and the rise and fall of almost every civilization of the past.
Would you all agree or disagree?
Do you think tyranny can still happen in modern western nations? I get the feeling that a lot of people I speak to think that tyranny couldn't take root anymore and that it's a thing of the past.
thoughts please.
This was actually a theory of history for a while, this idea of a cyclical rise and fall of civilizations. It's popular, sort of like conventional wisdom, but I'm not sure it's accurate. For one, your steps are very vague. They sound nice and clean but they can't really be defined. For instance, government ALWAYS plays the role of protector of equality, it's not a final stage that generates dependency. Tyrannical despots usually appear after times of strife, but not always. The mundane oppressors don't need massive emergencies to slowly take power.
For instance, the time that most people think America was "freest" was actually a time of oppression for a majority of the population at worst, and disenfranchisement at best (non-landowning whites).
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