Out of the frying pan...

Out of the frying pan,,, and into the fire. COVID is finally on the wane, at least regarding the Omicron variant and it feels like we are literally starting to breathe freely again sans masks, at least in my neck of the woods. But now we have moved from Pandemic to War. The World just can't seem to catch a break. 

What is it about the early part of the century that seems to sow the seeds for conflict? Only a hundred years ago one World War had just come to a close and another "War to end all Wars" would soon be on the horizon. We haven't even made it out of the 2020's and we're already repeating ourselves. 

What is it about us as a species that seems to cultivate and then tolerate thugs, despots, and tyrants? And what of Russia - no slouch on the tyrant front - Germany certainly had Hitler, but Russia seems to churn out tyrants in a staggeringly rapid succession. Lenin, Stalin, and now Putin stand front and center when it comes to defining tyranny. The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle defined a Tyrant as a person who rules without, and unrestrained by, law. The fact that they needed to define the word at all tells us that even in their day humanity was already sadly struggling with leaders gone wild. 

There must be something innate in us as Humans that tends toward tyrannical behavior such as a thirst for power and control, indifference to conventional laws or morality, a penchant for lying and deceit, and an almost total lack of empathy for our fellow man. Perhaps it hearkens back to our early evolution, to our earliest fight for survival. Dr. Jean Kim, a psychiatrist writing in Pysychology Today ("Why do People Follow Tyrants? History repeats itself because of human nature") , points out that tyrants are not created in a vacuum, they come to power on the backs of the masses they ultimately disdain. She goes on to argue that its not so much the Tyrant we need to examine - their foibles are on full display for the World to see - as it is the people who ultimately follow and prop up these aberrant individuals and allow them to reach a critical point where they truly can exist outside the mores that govern, and define, civilized people. Its a fascinating read that ends up pointing the finger not only at the tyrant but at all of us for allowing such monsters to exist. 

Most of us have experienced tyrants from childhood on. From the schoolyard bully to abusive relationships in our personal and professional lives who among us hasn't been on the receiving end of some of this type of behavior? I spent much of my career working in Human Resources and in hindsight much of the work done by some of my peers revolved around reconciling such behavior within the needs of the organization. I'm not just mincing words here - Human Resources exists to protect the organization and sadly less enlightened H.R. shops often tolerate absolutely abysmal behavior by those in power under the guise of furthering the perceived interests of the company. I was often reminded that businesses are not democracies which is why long, long ago I concluded that business leadership was but a poor training ground for those aspiring to high government office and public service. Too many executives reach a point, sometimes abetted by their H.R. departments, of believing that they are indeed outside the laws, norms, and mores that govern the behavior of the rest of us.

Not all leaders are tyrants. I have worked for a handful who were the complete opposite of the word. However, Dr. Kim argues that a certain personality type - charismatic and charming but also calculating and cruel - often crops up in positions of power and I'd have to agree in so far as my observations over a 40+ year career saw far more of this type of leadership than the opposite. Extrapolate that to the global scale and I'd argue that there are far more nations leaning towards autocracy than those demonstrating true democratic traits. Folks far, far smarter than I actually study these things: one Washington Post article points out that "...only 15% of the world's population lives in countries where everyone, regardless of gender or socioeconomic status, has roughly equal access to political power." Another article published earlier this year in The Economist breaks the world's governments down this way:

• 23 countries have full democracies
• 52 have flawed democracies
• 35 are hybrid regimes
• 57 have authoritarian regimes

None of this answers the question of what to do about the Tyrant Du Jour: Vladimir Putin. His biography certainly gives strong hints at his ever-increasing belief that he is beyond the laws of men be they those of his own countrymen or those of other nations. We may not like what Mr. Putin is doing today, but none of it should come as a surprise. Still, the work of folks like Dr. Kim does give some insight into why he was allowed to get to this point both by his fellow Russians as well as the rest of the world. And in understanding Mr. Putin and his countrymen we may come away looking to our own shores with increased worry for our own future. And this is truly a deadly serious business.

Deaths attributed to:

COVID (worldwide) 5-6 million

Vladimir Lenin    3-4 million

Joseph Stalin       10-20 million (note that an additional 3-4 million Ukrainians were killed in the

                             Holodomor, a man-made famine engineered by the Soviet government of Joseph 

                             Stalin

Adolph Hitler       15-31 million

Mao Zedong         40-45 million

Vladimir Putin      To be determined