Millions of Petty Tyrants

Column by tzo.


Exclusive to STR


The empirical evidence that power corrupts goes a long way in explaining the inevitable one-way course to tyranny trod by all governments. Having a monopoly on force, corruption within the government monopoly cannot be effectively checked, and growing corruption and its attendant increasing power eventually congeal into absolute power and absolute corruption.
Kurt Vonnegut turned a slightly more colorful phrase in articulating the association of power and corruption by claiming that human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. It must be pretty heady stuff indeed to be in a position within the U.S. government in which you effectively are part of the controlling mechanism of over 3.8 million square miles and 350 million human lives, not to mention the power projected out over the rest of the entire globe.
The most dangerous aspect of our “democratic” government, though, is the fact that the reg’ler folks are made to feel that they are part of the system. Shareholders, as it were. "We" is thrown around a lot, even when the government seems to be spinning out of control. The situation is rarely articulated as “us versus them,” but rather "we are the government and we are doing it to ourselves," and “we have to work within the system to fix the system.”
This is an extremely dangerous perspective for the subjects to have, because as the government slides into tyranny, it is encouraged and pushed along by millions of petty little tyrants—a vast multitude of power-drunk chimpanzees.
What should "we" do in Afghanistan? Wow, what a power-tie-wearing question! "We" must decide. It is up to "us." They are "our" troops. What should be “our” objective?
See what's happening here? The chimpanzees have been given a powerful intoxicant, and they love it. Oh, look, they want some more!
The citizen, being part of the government, feels that the 3.8 million square mile empire with its 350 million subjects is his to play with. By exiting his mother’s birth canal within certain ranges of latitude and longitude, he has acquired property and innate power over other fellow human beings. Good for him and his kind, and tough luck for the others. The power-drunk chimpanzee slumps down on his couch in his 800 square-foot apartment and is lord over all he surveys through his television set, tuned to CNN.
How are the troops doing? Are illegals trying to get in? Are there people not paying taxes? Why is there salmonella in the spinach? Who needs to get bailed out? Who's running in the next election?
Important questions requiring his considered opinions.
Isn’t it just mind-boggling amazing? Invite a person from Mexico to your house, and someone in North Dakota has an opinion on it and also has the guns to back his opinion up. Homeschooling children where it is not permitted? Moe from Oklahoma says lock up the parents and take the kids! Busybodies with opinions on all sorts of things that shouldn't concern them, but it’s “our” country and so “we” have to be involved in everything that happens.
Queens of Hearts residing in every domicile, rendering judgments on events occurring many hundreds of miles away, involving people they never have met and never will meet. The kingdom is large. Off with their heads!
You see? The citizen is not pitted against the government, he is a part of it. And he is willingly a part when he feels that he has a hand on one of the controls that guide Leviathan. Play by Leviathan's rules, and you, too, can rule. You can join the army of the righteous and fight the good fight against the pot smoking, non-voting, raw-milk-drinking hooligans. Here’s your gun and brown shirt—go git ‘em!
Like the international scene better? Well, you can participate in the killing of hundreds of thousands of brown people in remote parts of the world and suffer no consequences! How can you beat that deal? Power of the gods in your very own hands! What does it matter if you cannot write a complete sentence, read an entire book, or pinpoint on the globe just where those unfortunate brown people with targets on their foreheads live? Willful ignorance in exchange for power, heck, even just for the illusion of power, is a pretty sweet deal, my friend.
Besides, the Average American Citizen is not really responsible for any of the bad stuff his government may be doing. Although he is part of it by way of the democratic process, he is not really part of the stuff he may find reprehensible, right? Or maybe he subconsciously accepts that he is responsible, but also knows he is addicted to the power associated with it, and so cannot or will not admit to himself what he is advocating in exchange for this intoxicating power.
This is not a new mindset. George Orwell saw it and dubbed it “doublethink” in his novel 1984:
Let us not forget that fear is the ultimate basis for such a paradoxical mindset, even though other justifications are claimed in order to avoid the admission of cowardice. Justify the actions of the bully and join his gang so as not to receive a bloody pug yourself.
War is peace. Slavery is freedom. Ignorance is strength. And now another: To be ruled over is to rule.
When a democratic nation becomes tyrannical, this is a description of the majority of the population, not just the elected officials. Power-drunk chimpanzees, all. Everyone is tying them on, and it's a long, lost weekend filled with blackout drinkers. C’mon, another round for everyone!
Wuzzat? Hey, buddy, just love it or leave it pal, OK? Stupid hippie pinko commie. People died so you could be here, so just kiss my red, white, and blue butt.
These chimps have absolutely nothing over the syphilitic, inbred monarchs of old in their deft wielding of might-makes-right wisdom. These newfangled enablers of power who are themselves enabled by their betters with the illusion of power—all are tightly clusterstuck together in a death spiral right on down to the cold, hard ground. The crash will not be pretty, but for now, it’s full steam ahead. It just feels too good to stop.
So pardon me while I leave you now, as I must go and decide upon the proper inflation rate necessary for a healthy economy. It’s not all glitz and glamour running the most powerful empire the world has ever seen, you know. My input is needed on a wide range of issues.
After all, I am large and in charge: I am the government. *Hic*
Millions of petty tyrants
Issuing proclamations.
The mucilage that binds together
democratic nations.
What you do is my concern
And what you own is mine.
If you don't like the way it works
Then hit the road, Sunshine.


Your rating: None Average: 10 (4 votes)
tzo's picture
Columnist tzo
Columns on STR: 64

tzo now lives in your head.


Mike Powers's picture

Excellent column!

Suverans2's picture

Solid 10, tzo!

Arbeit mact frei's picture

What is needed is a cure for power madness. Something like the "cure" for heroin addiction; a powerful and addicting drug like methadone, where the addict can be diverted into a new addiction where he (and sometimes she) can no longer cheat, steal, rob, maim and kill to get the next fix.

tzo's picture

The cure is love and respect for others, which can only follow from love of and respect for self. Unfortunately, this seems to be in short supply.

If we can teach this to our kids, then all they will have to do is wait for us to all die off and then they can have a better place in which to live.

Suverans2's picture

As one teacher put it " thy neighbour as thyself".

This "love" was translated from the ancient Greek word agapao, which meant, "to love (in a social or moral sense)". It did not mean, "to love (sensually)" [agab], or even "to be a friend to (fond of [an individual or an object]), that is, have affection for (denoting personal attachment, as a matter of sentiment or feeling" [phileo]. [1]

respect VERB
→ to show that you understand the importance of something by not doing anything against it
→ to obey a rule, law, etc. [2]

These two, as we can see, have very much in common, because we show our "love", "in a social or moral sense", for our fellow man, by "respecting" him, i.e. by "not doing anything against [him]". And, by "not doing anything against [him]" is meant, by obeying the "natural law (of man)", by showing "respect" for his "natural rights", that is to say, his right ("just claim") to his own life, his right to liberty, and his right to his justly acquired property.

This is why another great teacher, Lysander Spooner, who called the “Natural Law”, “The Science of Justice[3], made the following profound statement.


[1] Greek Dictionary by Dr. James Strong
[2] Macmillan Dictionary

tzo's picture

Quite a few teachers over the years have all discovered the same idea:

Must be something to it, aye?

Suverans2's picture

This article reminded me of a line from the movie The Matrix (c.1999).


Suverans2's picture

Wonder how many of us believe that "the government" IS "the system", and that when "the government" collapses under it's own weight, (which all insatiable things must eventually do), that "the system" will collapse with it?

system noun → rules that decide how a society, country, or organization should operate... ~ Macmillan Dictionary

It's not "the government" that creates "the system", it is "the system" that creates "the government".

GIGO, (garbage in, garbage out). It is " the system" that is the "foundation", so if the WRONG "system" is used to build a house, a WRONG house will be built. No amount of effort will make that house RIGHT.


"Let Us Now Try Liberty!" ~

Suverans2's picture

The RIGHT system, the only foundation that will have any chance of producing lasting liberty is the Natural Law, "It is the science of peace; and the only science of peace: since it is the science which alone can tell us on what conditions mankind can live in peace, or ought to live in peace, with each other." (

"A philosopher can choose to disbelieve in Newton's laws, but this will not enable him to fly. He can disbelieve in natural law, but political and social institutions built on false law will fail, just as a bridge built on false physical law will fall..." ~ James A. Donald

Lawrence M. Ludlow's picture

Dear Tzo: Your description of the power-drunk chimps of democracy is a good parallel to the points made by Hans Hermann Hoppe in "Democracy: The God that Failed." Hoppe notes that at least in a monarchy you know who is the badass that's totally responsible for the misdeeds. In a democracy, it's lots of your neighbors, and the idiotic belief that vox populi (est) vox dei "empowers" the chimps with a sense of self-righteousness that leads them into the hundreds of crusades that have been so bloody in the "century of democracy," which of course is the 20th century, so dipped in blood. The self-righteous worldview of the "democratic man" enables him to commit any atrocity in the name of the people -- as any number of examples have shown. Thanks for writing.

Suverans2's picture

G'day Lawrence M. Ludlow,

I think that any attack on "Democracy" alone is missing the mark. The "power-drunk chimps" of communism, for example, are at least as bad. "Compare: 100 million people murdered by governments this century; 75% by communist regimes — to about 38 million killed in all wars and conflicts."

In my opinion, it's is not Democracy, or any other form of government, that is at fault. It is the fact that all of them are a “law unto themselves”, which means they are “lawless”, that is at the root of the problem.

law unto oneself Fig. one who ignores laws or rules; one who sets one's own standards of behavior. ~ The Free Dictionary by Farlex

The laws or rules that are being ignored by every man-made government on Earth is the Natural Law (of man). It is being ignored because "recognition" of it would drastically limit their power. It is this lack of law that “enables them to commit any atrocity”. Frédéric Bastiat perhaps explains it best.



Each of us has a natural right--from God[1]--to defend his person, his liberty, and his property. These are the three basic requirements of life, and the preservation of any one of them is completely dependent upon the preservation of the other two. For what are our faculties but the extension of our individuality? And what is property but an extension of our faculties?




A Just and Enduring Government


[1] Any reader who is offended by the concept of God need only omit that phrase which contains it. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.