Much Longer?

I do not know how long we have - 4 years?  8?  Maybe not that.  But fundamentally every current running through this nation is hurdling towards a tyranny.

You remember tyrannies, of course.  The ones where beliefs that are not officially are ruthlessly shut out, opinions which do not match that of the tyrant are silenced (by word or otherwise), where the rule of law is subverted and violence becomes merely an extension of political well?

You will recall the might of Imperial Rome, of Dynastic China and Feudal Japan and the Aztec Empire, of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany and Cambodia and Communist China and even more recently, Venezuela.  The sorts of places where thousands or millions die.

And we are heading there as fast as we can.

Oh, it is for the best of reasons, of course.  We need to be tolerant, to protect our feelings, to practice the "societal good" that is defined not by a set of principles but by how people "feel".   And so certain things cannot be said, certainly beliefs cannot be mentioned or practiced in public, certain freedoms must be set aside for some in the call of the good of all.

The people that are driving this, of course, have no idea what they are really calling down on themselves.  They believe they are doing the right thing; unfortunately in these circumstances, the right thing only works as long as your beliefs are in power.  Sooner or later those who are in power become all about their power and any beliefs or actions that do not comport with that - even if they did once upon a time - will be dealt with harshly.

Will everywhere be hit at the same time?  Of course not.  The urban centers, easiest to control, will be the ones most controlled - and most at risk of turning into a disaster.  The hinterlands, the outer places, often have ways of slipping underneath the scrutinizing forces so concerned with uniformity of belief and action.  At least until the inevitable end comes, when the government which was originally hailed as "of the people" is torn apart in civil strife.  Starvation, civil war, death, disease, destruction of civil life, a destruction of the things that make life pleasant:  these are the outcome of the tyranny so many seem to wish to hasten.

Oddly enough, it is never those that have lived under a tyranny that are eager to bring them to pass.  It is only those that, naive in their understanding of human nature and unappreciative of the nature of what freedom is, that rub the lamp and make the wish - only to hear the genie laugh with evil glee as he begins his incantation.