{"id":1263,"date":"2004-06-26T12:52:12","date_gmt":"2004-06-26T16:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=1263"},"modified":"2015-05-14T10:26:59","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T14:26:59","slug":"kapuscinski-on-revolution-vii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=1263","title":{"rendered":"Kapu\u015bci\u0144ski: On Revolution VII"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Ryszard Kapuscinski’s book Shah of Shahs<\/a>\"\"<\/i> (about the last Shah of Iran): <\/i><\/p>\n

A despot believes that man is an abject creature. Abject people fill his court and populate his environment. A terrorized society will behave like an unthinking, submissive mob for a long time. Feeding it is enough to make it obey. Provided with amusements, it’s happy. The rather small arsenal of political tricks has not changed in millennia.<\/p>\n

Thus, we have all the amateurs in politics, all the ones convinced they would know how to govern if only they had the authority.<\/p>\n

Yet surprising things can also happen. Here is a well-fed and well-entertained crowd that stops obeying. It begins to demand something more than entertainment. It wants freedom, it demands justice. The despot is stunned. He doesn’t know how to see a man in all his fullness and glory. In the end such a man threatens dictatorship, he is its enemy,. So it gathers its strength to destroy him.<\/p>\n

Although dictatorship despises the people, it takes pains to win their recognition. In spite of being lawless — or rather, because it is lawless — it strives for the appearance of legality. On this point it is exceedingly touchy, morbidly oversensitive. Morever, it suffers from a feeling (however deeply hidden) of inferiority. So it spares no pains to demonstrate to itself and others the popular approval it enjoys. Even if this support is a mere charade, it feels satisfying. So what if it’s only an appearance? The world of dictatorship is full of appearances.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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