The Dictators

By Ron Paul

Without dictators there would be no war. Dictators don’t all look like Hitler, Stalin, or Mao Zedong. There are many flavors and degrees of dictators. All of them are authoritarians. We have economic authoritarians, military authoritarians, and lifestyle authoritarians. They are all part of the problem because all of them support the initiation of violence and feel obligated to do us all a big favor by blessing us with mandates. Authoritarians like dependency and use government to exert their power and force their opinions on others.

Even with the advancement of society we continue to have “wars and rumors of war” as was prophesied. Yet I believe it’s possible for mankind to mature and “evolve” for the better, ushering in an age when fewer wars will be fought. While we’ll never rid the world of the monsters who live to rule others while suffering no remorse for the wars they instigate and rationalize, we can take action to keep the dictators from gaining great power.

The evil and needless suffering that the dictators cause never influences the warmongers to change their minds about human relations. Can one imagine a Dick Cheney, a Donald Rumsfeld, a John McCain, a Lindsey Graham, or a Joe Lieberman ever giving up his neoconservative beliefs and seeking peaceful solutions for the world’s problems rather than constantly advocating war? This goes for all the dictators of the world, current and past. They know best! They are the boss! The people aren’t smart enough about matters of vital importance like war, the dictators believe; the dictators will take care of us. This attitude is characteristic of economic dictators as well as dictators advancing foreign intervention. Look at what’s happened to this country in the last several decades with policies of expansive foreign and economic intervention supported by Democratic and Republican politicians and all branches of government.

Dictators, big and small

Dictators come in all sizes and shape. The many varieties of dictators, both big and small, are encouraged by the dependent masses who believe the lies the dictators and their facilitators trumpet persistently. Too many people believe a “free lunch” is just around the corner. If the people don’t have a strong government to protect them from domestic and foreign threats, they reason, how can they possibly be safe, secure, and well fed?

Most dictators gain support of the people by deception. Those who want to run our lives, always for “noble” reasons of course, deceive the people, and even themselves at times. The little dictators are local government officials. They start out with minor regulations of our persons and property. The  worst kind of dictators is the tyrant of the Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong variety. But, no matter how big or small dictators are, they all accept 100 percent the principle that granting government authority to manipulate our lives and control our property is legitimate and morally acceptable. Though it may be supposed a simple matter to contain their dictatorial urges, government power and its corruption tends to grow in spite of all efforts made to place barriers to the rise of dictators.

Most believers in limiting the government’s use of aggression who seek positions of political influence yield to the temptation to use government to solve many problems of the world. Their attitude about the role of government quickly changes once they’re in office.

Dictators, whether central economic planners, warmongers, or both, often see themselves as equalizers. They justify their use of force as only to help the weak, the sick, the hungry, the poor, and the unfortunate. But, most problems that political power holders argue it is their obligation to solve were created by previous government actions. This causes the bureaucratic system and profiteering special interests to metastasize. What really happens? Government grows, money rules, and the largess feeds into a culture of dependency. The three percent in need, with government benevolence, become six percent then 12 percent and grows continuously until the government goes broke and poverty engulfs the entire society as we have witnessed in Detroit. The perpetrators of the disaster scream that the only solution is more government benevolence.

Government has no moral authority to compromise the principle of nonaggression. And the people have no moral authority to use government force to give themselves benefits. Accept these two principles and the dictators lose their power.

The above in an excerpt from Ron Paul's new book Swords into Plowshares. Get your copy today!

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