Dictatorial behavior runs the gambit from personal relationship to political power.
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The dictatorial parent who will never be questioned or contradicted, the lover who maintains absolute control, the stranger on the street or online who demands compliance with their views, the leaders who implant themselves in absolute power. These are all ways that the dictator attitude can emerge.
Dictators, regardless of social level, end in the same way – a symbolic bullet to their own head. It can take a short time or a long time. The dictatorial parent loses touch with their adult children, and might continue a life of familial isolation. The dictatorial lover eventually loses the relationship and becomes susceptible to the downslide of depression once their power base is gone. The stranger on the street dictating their views gets ignored, and their views never truly voiced.
That leaves the dictatorial leader, the most explicit example of the ends that befall their attempts at absolute control. Recently, we need only look to Libya, and the demise of Muammar Gaddafi for the bullet to the head the leader delivers to themselves by way of their abuses. This is the end of most political dictators. Few remain to die a peaceful death.
Regardless of the scale of impact, all dictators seem to eventually end up shooting themselves in the head as a result of their absolute rule and use of power.
The solution isn’t finding a way to use the power for better, the answer is to never develop the dictatorial mindset in the first place.
Society doesn’t need any more dictators. They don’t lead us down the road of equality and fairness.
How can we eradicate the need to subjugate and rule that permeates our cultures?
Original Artwork: Kevin McGovern
Yes, I have heard of this baboon study. Hm, that gives me an idea!
I’m wondering if you’ve come across Robert Sapolsky’s work at Princeton. He studies wild baboons and the effects of stress on primate health (including humans). There’s a very interesting part of his work with baboons summarized in this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZcTvFqzxA0 Completely by accident one of the baboon troops Sapolsky was working with in the ’80s lost all of its most aggressive males at the same time. He says that thirty years later, that particular troop still has a very different culture from other troops, with a higher degree of social affiliation and lower levels of stress. I don’t know… Read more »