How Tyranny Comes to Rescue Us

Good piece from Jerry Pournelle.

The sad truth is that democracy itself is often unstable. Intellectuals lose faith. Democracy is not flashy. It falls out of fashion. The intelligentsia feel scorned, unappreciated, and turn to new theories.

There are other pressures. Republics stand until the citizens begin to vote themselves largess from the public treasury. When the plunder begins, those plundered feel no loyalty to the nation—and the beneficiaries demand ever more, until few are left unplundered. Eventually everyone plunders everyone, the state serving as little more than an agency for collecting and dispensing largess. The economy falters. Inflation begins. Deficits mount. Something must be done. Strong measures are demanded, but nothing can be agreed to.

In Weimar Germany the price of a postage stamp went to 8 billion marks. In China, Latin America, many of the new African nations, inflation has exceeded 1000%. The middle class is destroyed. The economy collapses. Democratic institutions cannot cope.

Enter the strong man, who will save the state.

For more than two thousand years the decline of democracy has been the precursor of the tyrant, who comes on stage as the nation's protector.

From Instapundit, who also blogs about Geithner's insistence on sweeping new powers, which I'm sure is an utterly unrelated thought.

Obama, of course, cannot bear any delay or debate in granting his Treasury Secretary (and therefore himself) such sweeping new power.

That sounds about right, eh?

posted by Ace at 12:21 PM

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