“Politics
is a realm in which iniquity is multiplied many times over when the masses like
herds of animals incited by morally corrupt leaders participate in systemic
evil on a massive scale.”
“Populism
is an incomplete and degenerate form of democracy.”
 |
| Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler, 1940 |
Public domain photo
ReplyDeletePhoto link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hitler_and_Mussolini_June_1940.jpg
Gonzalinho
Aphorisms – credits:
ReplyDeleteCacti Fur (November 29, 2017)
The Penmen Review (October 16, 2017)
Gonzalinho
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE DUTERTE?
ReplyDeletehttp://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2018/03/how-do-you-solve-problem-like-duterte.html
Gonzalinho
The Duterte method
ReplyDeleteBy: Randy David - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:10 AM April 22, 2018
Nearly two years after Rodrigo Duterte was elected to the presidency, his signature approach to power has become all-too-familiar. It is one based on the methodical use of the coercive power of the state in order to intimidate dissenters, critics, skeptics, deviants, and noncooperative individuals who, in his perception, are not taking him seriously.
...Adolf Hitler wrote a lot about mass psychology. Some of the things he said somehow give us a glimpse of the logic behind the Duterte method and its assumptions about mass stupidity. Here’s a sampling.
On cruelty: “Cruelty impresses, people want to be afraid of something. They want someone to whom they can submit with a shudder. The masses need that. They need something to dread.” “I have not come into this world to make men better, but to make use of their weaknesses.” On force: “Only force rules. Force is the first law.” “The one means that wins the easiest victory over reason is terror and force.”
Behind these deluded utterances is the ultimate narcissism of power: Hitler: “I was Europe’s last chance.” Duterte: “I am your last card.”
Link: http://opinion.inquirer.net/112636/the-duterte-method#ixzz5EfOcg28l
Gonzalinho
We have to recognize that a major part of the problem of degenerate governance in the Philippines is the population itself. This is the same population—in terms of cultural values and attitudes—that elected Estrada president. And Estrada was as corrupt as they come. It is this same population that today supports the psychopath Duterte in office. What has to change is the attitude of the population and their support for Duterte the mass murderer. Unless the Philippine people change the way they operate our political system, this continuing problem of a massively corrupt pervasively weak democracy will persist through generations.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
Bonhoeffer, On Stupidity, from Letters and Papers from Prison:
ReplyDelete“Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. … The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other. The process at work here is not that particular human capacities, for instance, the intellect, suddenly atrophy or fail. Instead, it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances. The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.”
Gonzalinho