Please pass the snake oil

The dirty secret about being in power is that you can only claim to be the authorities when the people willingly comply. The laws you enact must be reasonable and acceptable to the masses, because non-compliance breeds contempt for the law and authority. No regime can claim to be in control when the common citizens regard them as a joke.

What brought down the Soviet regime? First they made promises they couldn’t keep. They taxed and spent with no regard of their national debt. The citizens realizing there was no point in hard work began to slack off (go Galt). In whispers, hushed tones and written on bathroom walls, the people began to mock the ruling regime. Contempt for authority grew like weeds, the black market flourished. Eventually the rulers could no longer sustain the illusion that they were in control.

The more people who laugh at the king and his men behind their backs, the more the king’s authority shrinks until, like Assad in Syria or Gahddafi [Libya] or Saddam Hussein [Iraq] he finds himself the ruler of nothing but the hole he’s hiding in.

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