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Glen Brunner's avatar

I propose a slightly different big picture regarding "authoritarians in nature." Citing lower animals like birds flying in unison is one thing, but as one goes up the evolutionary scale into more conscious carnivores, one sees the dominance of the alpha male wolf, the silver-backed male gorilla, and "The Lion King"...yeh? Yes, the dominant human social structure for the past 5,000 years has been with chiefs, kings, emperors, pharaohs, dictators, etc. controlling our societies. Only very recently has "democracy" become a reality (in the US) for any length of time. And, you correctly ask: Is democracy natural for humans? How long can democracy survive? Especially in the face of authoritarianism? I agree with MLKing: "The arc of history bends slowly toward justice" because I find that the core of human beings is primarily a sense of oneness, fairness, justice, and egalitarianism. Therefore we are in a struggle with ourselves to overcome our aggressive, selfish, power-addictive inclinations....with our more gentle, compassionate, empathic core seeking a more fair & just world that includes everyone (aka: NOT for "Whites Only"). So, yes, our human past has been predominantly authoritarian in nature, but looking at this matter from the evolutionary perspective, I conclude that "democracy" is on "the right side of history" as we continue to evolve into a higher consciousness of oneness that includes everyone and everything. But due to the very clever, dualistic universe that birthed us, we find ourselves in an uphill battle with the "dominators" of our species (& their "father-seeking" followers). As you continually remind us, Thom,--(Thank YOU!)--it's up to us : "Democracy is not a spectator sport....Get active ! Tag! You're IT !" (And "Despair is not an option!")

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Mmerose's avatar

Fascinating! Check this out: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hobbes-moral/ (Article in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Hobbes' Moral and Political Philosophy, revision 2018.) Lots of trouble getting scholarly heads around Hobbes: is he a nascent Objectivist? (Ayn Rand, I presume.) or the father of Game Theory? (Prisoner's dilemma.) I also have taken off the shelf Erich Fromm: "Escape from Freedom." (1941) Fromm particularly grappled with how psychology begets sociology. (cover blurb:"Totalitarianism can be tempting.") I would observe that the real "primal scream" may be: "Will somebody just tell me what to doooooo!" But what about the old aphorism about absolute power corrupting absolutely? Maybe America got lucky, in that the Trump incarnation of "Only I can solve it all" was so over-the-top vile and venal that enough of us are motivated to hold the fort against the next dictator, somehow. Thom warns us about the Trumps in velvet gloves waiting in the wings. It's clear now that we can't really do anything about the congenital Igors and Renfields in our midst. The armed. Possibilities turn inside out. Hobbes posits that "state of nature" is state of war, yet that the dictator and/or church is supposed to be what saves society from chaos and war, not what solicits it. Military coup is supposed to be bad, yet will the military be the last hope of democracy in our time?

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