Addicted to Tyranny

All tyrants do their evil work the same way and the opium poppy plant is no exception. It is the source for morphine and heroin and also the precursor for oxycodone and hydrocodone, the type of painkillers Rush Limbaugh became addicted to after his back surgery. These opiates can be tricky to use because they are addictive if taken when not in pain. You can use narcotics to stop continuous pain for months and as long as you stop the drugs when the pain stops, there is no problem.

But take them for transient ailments and you risk addiction. I suspect that is what happened to Rush when he used these prescribed substances to alleviate pain after surgery on his back. He thought he was controlling his pain but the pills eventually began controlling him. Rush became the slave and the pills became the master.

But a chemical has no brain. It doesn't reason. So how can a chemical rule someone as intelligent as Rush Limbaugh? Well, the fact is, you don't need be clever at all to be a tyrant, all you need is the ability to administer pain and to alleviate pain. Heroin addicts become addicted because they were initially hedonists who took the drug for pleasure but after they become addicted, the euphoria ends they take it only to stop the pain of withdrawal. And the addict will do absolutely anything to stop that terrible agony. The drug becomes a tyrant that rules his soul.

Throughout history, dictators like Stalin, Hitler and Saddam used this simple principle to stay in power. Any thug knows how to use violence to intimidate people to get his way but the more successful tyrant learns to use rewards to maintain his grip. The tyrant shares his intoxicating and addictive power with those who support him and administers hideous cruelty to those who oppose him. His minions are like addicts terrified of withdrawal.

The brain is a control mechanism -- it instinctively wants to control things, but the mind doesn't like to be controlled or even to admit it when it is being controlled. So all addicts, whether heroin addicts or tyranny addicts, tend to go into denial and rationalize their behavior. The addict must lie to others because, after all, who would trust someone controlled by a tyrant? And the addict lies to himself -- believing he is the one in control.

Liberals like Jimmy Carter think they are being rational when they reward tyrants like North Korea for bad behavior. The liberal thinks he is controlling the beast when the reverse is true. The tyrants have simply learned that they can get cooperation from us by using threats. Like the victims of the Stockholm syndrome, they become captives who begin to sympathize with their captors. It explains why liberals sympathize with terrorists.

America has become addicted to China. Some politicians are hooked on Chinese campaign cash and the rest of us are dependent on Chinese consumer products. We have become so accustomed to these cheap goods made by slave labor that we ignore or rationalize the tyranny. We tell ourselves that somehow they will evolve into a benign state if they become prosperous -- even though we know from history that they will be more likely to use their industrial strength for evil purposes.

In the oil embargo of 1973 Saudi Arabia inflicted great pain on our economy and OPEC has been exploiting our addiction to oil ever since. Everyone remembers what an oil cutoff can do so we ignore Saudi support of terrorism and we continue to become more dependent.

When our government goes into the business of "amelioration of pain", as George Will calls it, we are peddling addictive medicine to the population. We do that in a myriad of ways, from subsidizing failing corporations to various welfare schemes -- but they all do the same thing -- they breed corrupt interdependence at the expense of the nation.

Dependence is not inherently a bad thing -- good people who depend on each other become stronger, but dependence on destructive forces can be fatal. And the more addicted we become the more painful the withdrawal symptoms will be.

2 posted on 10/12/2003 5:43:52 PM PDT by Tax-chick (You can't scare me ... I have seven children!)

Keep Our Republic Free

Or mail checks to
FreeRepublic , LLC
PO BOX 9771
FRESNO, CA 93794

or you can use

PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com

STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER
and say THANKS to Jim Robinson!
IT'S IN THE BREAKING NEWS SIDEBAR
THANKS!

3 posted on 10/12/2003 5:45:55 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)

We are trying to break the hold of the tyrants but it is a slow and painful process. Rebuilding the failed nations left behind by the tyrants is a major undertaking similar to drug rehab. The Democrats are pushing to cut the rehab short and let Afghanistan and Iraq go on their way alone or with the help of the UN enablers that allowed the tyrants to grab a stronger hold. This is a recipe for failure and they know it. Of course, they will blame the failure on Bush.

4 posted on 10/12/2003 6:34:19 PM PDT by eggman (Social Insecurity - Who will provide for the government when the government provides for all of us?)

Dan,

I know your post was in regard to our dependence on China. We are taking care of the worst tyrants but we are also ignoring some that have a stronger hold on us. Maybe we are hoping that the devil that has us in his grip will be kind.

5 posted on 10/12/2003 6:41:58 PM PDT by eggman (Social Insecurity - Who will provide for the government when the government provides for all of us?)

Yes, the Saudis know that we hold a lot of cards in OPEC's backyard so they may be more reasonable. China is a different story. They think long-term and most of the cash they get from us goes towards building a military infrastructure. They could just decide to wait patiently until the next Clinton is in the White House.

7 posted on 10/12/2003 8:50:42 PM PDT by gonzo (God said to Abraham:"Kill me a son". Abe said: "God, you must be puttin' me on."...)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.