The Tools of Tyrants

​There are certain tactics would-be tyrants employ to claim and maintain power.  These strategies are being carried out in our current society.  It is important to recognize them for what they are before they achieve their purpose.
 
Division
We are all familiar with the term “divide and conquer”.  Tyrants seek to divide society into groups.  They turn group affiliation into personal identification to separate the individual from the unifying greater whole.  We are no longer American, Christian, etc.  We are instead black, white, gay, trans, male, female, etc. They then pit these groups against each other to weaken the structure of the society they seek to overthrow.  The groups take on descriptors such as oppressed and oppressor, extremist and resistance, patriarchy and progressive.  There is no denying that our current society is deeply divided and ripe for overthrow.
 
Intimidation
Hitler had his “brown shirts” who in the days prior to his rise to total power, would patrol the sidelines of parades and beat anyone who refused to give the Nazi salute.  By-standers quickly learned that they had better publicly honor the aspiring German leader and his National Socialist party whether they fully agreed with him or not.  Intimidation coerces the appearance of support from the ambivalent, amplifying the perceived power of a movement.  Perception becomes reality.  Today we have the BLM movement, ANTIFA, and Cancel Culture both literally and figuratively beating people into submission to advance an ideology that seeks to transform the structure of our society.  The individuals involved in these causes might think they are working to build a better world, but they are just foot soldiers for a tyranny that will bring them to heel when their usefulness has run its course.
 
Fear
Ben Franklin famous said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”  Promising safety to a frightened population in exchange for their total submission is perhaps the oldest trick of tyrants.  For decades, the Democrat party has used the fear of economic insecurity and the promises of government benefits to carve out a perpetual constituency.  The Republicans used the fear of terrorism following 9/11 to bring about one of the most audacious submissions of personal liberty in the form of the Patriot Act.  But both pale in comparison to the chilling suspension of liberty during the COVID-19 crisis.  The year 2020 proved to tyrants that Americans can be frightened into total submission.
 
Ignorance
The prophet Hosea wrote, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”  There was a reason why it was forbidden to teach slaves to read and write.  Knowledge is power.  The absence of knowledge makes it easier to control others.  If you do not know or understand other groups, you can be made to believe they are your enemy.  If facts are not presented to you in the proper context, a disease can be amplified into a terror-inducing plague that can then be used as a pretext to get you to accept previously unthinkable restrictions upon your liberty.
 
Vilification
To complete their rise to power, tyrants need to paint the old order as something that is evil and therefore the moral imperative is to replace it.  They also need to vilify anyone who refuses to conform to the objectives of the revolution.  This is where the seeds of division, the fruit of fear, the blindness of ignorance, and the hammer of intimidation combine to overthrow society and replace it with tyranny.  When a segment of society refuses to be made ignorant or sufficiently frightened, the fearful and compliant must be made to believe that the non-compliance of others is a threat to their safety.  Enforcing compliance becomes a matter of survival and extreme measures can therefore be justified to eliminate any opposition.  This is the path to concentration camps and mass graves.  This is the path we are on.
 
The tools of tyrants are doing their work on our society.  It is not yet too late to prevent the completion of their end goal.  We must reject division.  We must refuse to be intimidated.  We must stay informed and engage in critical thinking.  We must never allow ourselves to be frightened into surrendering our freedom, even if we are told it is just for a short time.  Above all else, we must maintain a firm reliance on the promises of God.  He brings us unity through faith in him.  He brings us strength to withstand those who would intimidate us.  He brings us hope in the face of fear.  And in him all truth is rooted.  As John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”