Why Authoritarianism Always Has, And Always Must, Fail

By Chris Rossini

The surest way to sentence yourself to a life of constant frustration is by attempting to control that which you cannot control.

On the flip side, the surest way to living a fulfilling life is by staying focused on that which you can control, and making your choices accordingly.

For example, let's say that you open your weather app and see that a hurricane has formed and is heading your way. Current projections have it hitting your area in a couple of days.

You have absolutely no control over this hurricane. You cannot direct it, micromanage it, or dictate what it will or will not do. 

Your opinion of the hurricane means virtually nothing. You can complain that it exists and complain that it's not fair, but it changes nothing. 

The only thing that matters with regards to you and the hurricane is how you adapt to it. Will you leave your home and get out of its path? Or will you stay and take the risk?

Your control lies with how your perceive your local situation, how much you value your life, and what choices you will take.

No one else controls the mental processes that lead to your decisions and actions. In fact, your next door neighbors may come to the exact opposite conclusions that you do. 

Same hurricane. Different interpretations. Different actions.

Pretty straight forward, right?

Well, let's take the hurricane out of the picture, and replace it with "other people."

In the same way that you have no control over a hurricane, so do you have no control over other people.

This is a hard one for many to accept. It's known as a 'hard truth.'

Those who refuse to accept this 'hard truth' are referred to as 'authoritarians.' These are the individuals who sentence themselves to a life of constant frustration and failure. For they can never reach their goal of controlling other people, no matter how hard they try.

The reason for this is actually quite simple to understand.

Each and every individual human being has internal purposes, desires, and goals that they want to achieve. Each has internal ideas on how they want to achieve their desires. Each then chooses the means that they will use in order to achieve those desires.

None of these internal processes are visible. None of them are tangible. You can't touch a desire, or idea, or choice. You can't observe them or put them into a database before they occur. You can't place an idea into another person's hand.

These internal processes take place every single second of every single day, multiplied by about 7+ billion individual human beings. This limitless world of ideas and choices takes place in real-time.

Hopefully you can see why it's impossible to control other people.

In order to control something, you must know all of the variables involved. But when it comes to human beings, the internal variables not only can't be known; there are no limits to them! 

You can't put a fence around the imagination. You can't limit the limitless!

Refusing to accept this 'hard truth' has cost humanity dearly. The history of mankind is filled with countless stories of authoritarians who set out to limit the limitless.

The result, each and every time?

Mass death.

No exceptions.

When you attempt to control the uncontrollable, the uncontrollable must win. You have no chance.

Human beings can only control themselves.

Individual Liberty is the way.