Will We Be Next?

Every civilization in the history of mankind has been confronted with this insidious disease.

Humans tend to focus on their immediate needs: Find food for energy. Put gas in the car to go to work. Collect a paycheck to put a roof over our head. Get some sleep.

Try to find some joy in between.

Next, build a family for personal fulfillment and long term emotional security. But that is impossible until you get those other needs under some amount of control. Life is hard for most of us. We fail more than we succeed.

Which breeds frustration and apathy.

At some point we humans start to recognize how bigger social events affect our immediate needs. We look for sources of power, so we can better manage those cultural forces. We form alliances, unions, cultural movements, and voters coalitions called political parties.

And that is where government comes in…

Politics should only occupy a small percentage of our time. For some it is all-consuming but for too many, it is totally ignored.

So the decisions affecting society are made by a minority of those affected. When those decisions have negative consequences, disinterested folks suddenly get animated and make their voices heard.

But it can be too late, and that leads to contention and conflict.

Unfortunately the disinterested too often misunderstand the realities of politics and social management, so they disrupt the process, causing more anger, disruption and mismanagement.

It often results in a circular firing squad, undermining the political process, which then makes life harder, encouraging more apathy and disengagement.

While all of this discombobulation is happening, nefarious forces sneak into the arena and work their way into positions of influence, and like a virus, begin to build a coalition of self interests. The underpinnings of authoritarianism…

Every civilization in the history of mankind has been confronted with this insidious disease. Every one of the various empires and dynasties have ultimately collapsed as a result of this vicious cycle.

Will we be next?