Elected Leaders Daydream About Being Dictators. They Shouldn't.

"If government is big enough to give you anything, it's big enough to take everything away from you."

Some Western leaders envy dictators' powers.

President Donald Trump said, when North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un speaks, "his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same."

President Barack Obama told reporters it would be so much easier to be the president of China.

Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, said he admires China because "their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime."

These are stupid and dangerous fantasies.

Some people have a "utopian dream that if only someone at the top could just point us in a certain direction, everything would go well," says historian Johan Norberg in my new video.

"People like a strong leader," I point out.

"A strong leader of their own imagination," Norberg responds.

One example he gives: "Thomas Friedman of The New York Times famously said that he wanted to be China for a day to solve global warming."

If Friedman were dictator, he could solve global warming? I doubt it.

Yes, China has built lots of wind turbines.

"But those wind turbines don't produce more power!" Norberg points out. "Around 30 percent of them are not even connected to the grid. And why is that? Because they didn't build them to make money. They built them because they wanted to meet a political goal."

So China has useless wind turbines and, for power, builds more coal plants.

Another example: American media said we should look to China to contain COVID-19. NBC's Chuck Todd asked Dr. Anthony Fauci, "How uncomfortable is it that perhaps China's authoritarian ways did prevent this?"

Fauci replies that China "prevented a broader spread."

But China's "'Zero COVID' policy turned into a nightmare," says Norberg. China locked people into homes. One city even killed COVID patients' pets. China is still the one country that will not acknowledge that we may have to learn to live with COVID.

"That's what you get with dictators," says Norberg. "If government is big enough to give you anything, it's big enough to take everything away from you."

At the beginning of the pandemic, America imitated China's lockdowns. The mayor of Los Angeles threatened to shut off power to people who did not follow his orders.

There was lots of political bickering about what our COVID rules should be. People don't like the bickering, but Norberg calls it one of democracy's strengths.

"Because it means that we see different things and we bring different ideas to the table." By contrast, "when we have one guy at the top, they begin to fall for their own propaganda."

That's probably what led to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin thought that his own military was in excellent shape," says Norberg. "Ukraine was seen as a joke of a country, a place of latte-drinking comedians."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a comedian before becoming president.

Putin assumed Ukrainians "would just run away the moment they saw muscular Russian paratroopers," says Norberg. "But it's been a disaster for them."

In freer countries, Norberg points out, "journalists [and] people online would've seen those problems and brought them forth."

But Putin's advisers fear telling him the truth. It's fun to watch one of his flunkies groveling.

I understand why his adviser stammers. Pointing out a problem might get him jailed, if not killed. It's why dictators get bad information. They make bad decisions because there's no open dissent.

"That's what happens when you centralize," says Norberg. "You lose individual initiative…local knowledge. If you can mobilize everybody in one direction, sometimes they mobilize us all over the cliff."

I'm glad America has a government with limited powers.

"Democracy cannot guarantee the best governance, but it can prevent the worst from happening," concludes Norberg. "That is enough. That's really what freedom and democracy is about. It doesn't guarantee us heaven, but at least it makes us sure that we won't end up in hell."

COPYRIGHT 2022 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.

Comments

[IceTrey]

"It doesn't guarantee us heaven, but at least it makes us sure that we won't end up in hell."
Has he looked around lately?

[TJJ2000]

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[DocRab]

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[The Encogitationer]

You're barking up the wrong tree. iceTrey sympathizes with what the Nazis did to Jews by having no sympathy with those who were forced to work in bomb and rocket factories.

[IceTrey]

That's a lie. I have no sympathy for anyone who helped the Nazis by manufacturing war material for them which the Jewish prisoners did. They could have died honorably but they chose to live at the cost of the lives of others.

[The Encogitationer]

So do you deserve blame for what your taxdollars do if you don't let IRS agents shoot you dead for tax resistance?

[ElvisIsReal]

Another article about the protests and the WEF/green agenda failure:

https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/were-not-gonna-take-it

But I’m going to let you in on a secret, here. We’re not dealing with a climate crisis any more than we were dealing with a covid crisis: what we’re actually dealing with is a CONTROL crisis. Specifically, there are people out there who really, REALLY want to control you. There’s a depressing amount of people whose jobs DEPEND on controlling you. And they’re not interested in the reasons you don’t want to be controlled.

The last couple years, you saw these people as ‘public health’ officials, computer modelers from ‘non-profit’ organizations, politicians, and anybody who got rich on the covid free cash giveaway (which continues to this day). They declared you were non-essential and said that it was illegal for you to go to work. They said your business was non-essential and ran you into the ground without a care.

They kept you from visiting your dying relatives in the hospital ‘for safety’ and shoved vaccine propaganda at you 24/7. When that wasn’t enough, they told you to get the jab or get fired. They did all this while calling you selfish if you didn’t agree with what they wanted.

And these are the same exact class of people who are telling you what must be done to combat the climate crisis. And they care exactly as much about your desires as they did during covid. You will be told how much energy you can consume. You will be told where you can travel. (Spoiler alert: nowhere) You will own nothing. You will eat the bugs.

[Set Us Up The Chipper]

Word

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[CharlesWT]

Some of the wind turbines in China are only connected to the grid so that they can draw enough current from it to set them spinning when big shots visit the area they're in.

[Don't look at me!]

And no matter how fast they spin those fans, it’s still hot out.

[Mother's Lament]

What's an article that criticizes authoritarian globalists doing on Reason?

[Zeb]

Stossel is legit.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

He's like their token legit libertarian.

[TangoDelta]

He's legit because he's seen the dark side and shifted toward the light. Many others started in light and started seeking shade.

[TJJ2000]

Per the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence (the nations foundation) the ONLY thing elected leaders should be daydreaming about is ensuring Individual Liberty and Justice for all.

[Ezra MacVie]

The BETTER ones are only dreaming of making themselves rich.
That's the most you can hope for.
They're not much different from us.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

President Barack Obama told reporters it would be so much easier to be the president of China.

Wow, that's a horrible quote. The only possible meaning that makes sense for this quote is that Obama wanted to be a communist authoritarian dictator. We should not even consider the possibility that a person claiming that it would be easier to be a dictator does not necessarily mean that the person is advocating to BE a dictator. Nope, he wanted to be a dictator because he is left-wing authoritarian trash and this quote is rock-solid proof of his authoritarian ways since he always hated America in the first place.

President Donald Trump said, when North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un speaks, "his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same."

Oh come now. He is not claiming that he wants to be a dictator like Kim Jong-un! That's fake news. That quote is taken out of context. We must take Trump "seriously but not literally". He only meant that he wants people to pay attention to his viewpoint because it is otherwise lost and muddled by the LameStream Media that continually lies about him. There is no possible way that he was claiming here that he wanted to be a dictator. That is because Trump loves America. He could not possibly want to be a dictator.

Did I do that right, folks?

[Don't look at me!]

Idiot.

[sarcasmic]

You took the Democrat literally and the Republican figuratively, called the Democrat evil and the Republican misunderstood, and blamed the media.

Yeah, I think you followed the rules of fairness on these here comments.

[Roberta]

Both of the quotes by Stossel give inaccurate impressions. Obama's was just about president's being a hard job, and Trump's was about the resistance he was getting within his own administration.

[The Encogitationer]

My heart bleeds for both of them. /Sarc.

Like Super Chicken said to his lion companion Fred: "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it."
https://youtu.be/xki4tWcsSK0

[MT-Man]

I guess I'm not sure why you are trying to egg others on when you tell those same people you don't think it's great to do?

[NOYB2]

Obama tried to be an authoritarian dictator. Biden is even worse.

[CE]

stroke of the pen, law of the land, pretty cool.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

“So Let It Be Written, So Let It Be Done”

[The Encogitationer]

Obama couldn't rock a totally bald head like Yul Brynner.

[Zeb]

Those quotes were lacking some context. Trudeau is the one to watch now. He seems to really mean it.

[Roberta]

President Donald Trump said, when North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un speaks, "his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same."

Context is everything here. Trump said that about the resistance he was getting within government on such matters as foreign intervention. He didn't mean "my people" as the population in general.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

The people "within government" don't belong to the President.

[Nardz]

JFC...

[Zeb]

"My people" can mean things other than ownership. The executive appointees are usually called President X's administration/cabinet/etc. That doesn't imply that the president owns them.
Trump is a narcissist who seeks positive attention, so that's part of it too. But that doesn't mean we should interpret every statement in the worst possible light.

[The Encogitationer]

This is a standard line that Bible-Thumpers give to Atheists and other Bible critics. "You're taking it out of context!"

Well what does it mean in context? Scratch far enough down and you'll see the full context is frequently contradictory with other passages, contradictory of the larger context of human knowledge, and contradictory of justice and moral sense.

And as with JHVH-1, if these would-be dictators were such master communicators, their message would not be misunderstood.

[Truthfulness]

On the contrary, you are the one that actually takes them out of context and twists them to mean something it is not. This is exactly what Democrats do to their political opponents (and the Bible, for that matter). One Jewish and Christian tenet is that Bible study goes hand-in-hand with prayer in order to read them correctly:
https://www.crossway.org/articles/praying-the-bible-vs-interpreting-the-bible/

You should repent of your falsehood and viewpoints. Your blatant anti-Christianity and antisemitism are showing. Seek correction.

[Think It Through]

Re: China on COVID vs. the US on COVID: didn't Patrick Henry already cover this? Not that the US went the "liberty" route on COVID, exactly.

[The Encogitationer]

I'm kinda surprised that Stossel and Norbert didn't point to the ultimate absurdity of using Red China as a model for dealing with COVID-19, when Red China was not only the source of COVID-19 (bat soup or biolab is irrelevant,) but also was the reason for the contagion worldwide, when doctors were imprisoned and ultimately murdered for trying to get out word of the virus.

Totalitarian-caused problems cannot have Totalitarian "solutions."

[KiwiDude]

Exactly right.

[mtrueman]

"That's probably what led to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin thought that his own military was in excellent shape," says Norberg. "Ukraine was seen as a joke of a country, a place of latte-drinking comedians."

I think rather Putin was concerned that NATO would use Ukraine as a way to attack Russia.

[The Encogitationer]

As Robert "Papa" Heinlein observed, the human mind is a wonderful thing. It can think anything it wants to think.

Fuck Off, Dugin Hooligan Watermelon Rickshaw Boy!

[The Encogitationer]

Your prognosis of Russia's invasion of Ukraine makes as much sense as Lobsterman Jordan Peterson's, which he cribbed from Patriarch Kirill:

Jordan Peterson Say Russian Invasion of Ukraine Fueled by 'Degenerate' West's Culture Wars
https://www.mediaite.com/news/jordan-peterson-says-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-fueled-by-degenerate-wests-culture-wars/

By the way, you know who else called Western Culture 'degenerate?'

[mtrueman]

"By the way, you know who else called Western Culture 'degenerate?'"

It doesn't matter. Western culture continues to change, to influence other cultures and be influenced by them. In many countries, there is evident social fragmentation and polarization, and this is not limited to the countries in the west. I think there is a decline in the ability of the US empire to dictate to the rest of the world, like for example, where Germany gets her fossil fuels from. Which to me, an ardent anti-imperialist is a good thing, a positive step, not a sign of degeneration.

[mtrueman]

"So China has useless wind turbines and, for power, builds more coal plants."

Wind turbines are not useless. They produce electricity, and have been in place in China only for a decade or so. Apparently the problem lies not in the turbines, but their lack of connection to a transmission grid. Since around the same time as wind turbines were introduced, efforts to build an ultra high voltage grid have begun, which should allow electricity to be delivered over long distances with little loss. A modern grid should remove the bottleneck referred to in the article.

The Chinese government has also been promoting the use of nuclear, hydro, and solar, as well as the traditional coal which still generates more than half of China's electricity (down from close to 100% at the turn of the century.) China's not big on oil and gas as it has to be imported from abroad and is subject to difficulties beyond the control of the government like the war in Ukraine, war in the middle east, etc.

[Brandybuck]

> ... but their lack of connection to a transmission grid.

Which is what makes them useless. Do try to keep up.

[mtrueman]

"Which is what makes them useless. "

The problem lies in the lack of a grid, which is currently under development, as is most of China's power infrastructure. The turbines seem to be fine. China is the world's largest producer of electricity from wind and that capacity is still growing.

Getting a late start in industrial development is strangely something of a benefit as the example of Britain and Germany in the early 19th century illustrates so well. Britain was the pioneer and by the time Germany got started Britain's infrastructure was dated and the prospect of refitting was not attractive. I experienced something like this in China were I found small towns had leap frogged directly to satellite and cable, while back at my rural home cable was not an option and TV transmission hadn't changed for decades.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

"Wind turbines are not useless. " These, the ones to which he's referring, are.

[mtrueman]

No, they are able to produce electricity, which is what they are designed to do. The article makes it clear that the problem lies in the lack of a grid to get the electricity where it's needed. Not all wind turbines in China are faced with this trouble. China is the world's number one producer of electricity from wind energy and it's still growing. China, you see, has lots of wind due to her size and lengthy coast line. Exploitation of wind makes much more sense to the Chinese than relying on imports of fossil fuels from volatile foreigners.

[The Encogitationer]

So you would do absolute power right, huh?

Would you transport all the wind turbine and generator materials on the rickshaws you like to rhapsodize so, Watermelon?

[mtrueman]

"So you would do absolute power right, huh?"

Not even the communists of China have absolute power, no matter what you hear about it on TV.

[Brandybuck]

> Another example: American media said we should look to China to contain COVID-19.

When in fact it was China that turned a local outbreak into a global pandemic by trying to cover up a mild political embarrassment.

[Moderation4ever]

It is easy for anyone to think "if I were King, this is what I would do", but much harder in practice. All the good intentions fall away quickly as authoritarians realize the limits of power. The problem is that after they realize the limits they then just settle for an acceptance of the corruption. It not just that Putin did not know the limits of his military, but also how his military got so limited. The corruption of those keeping Putin in power and also enriching themselves with money from the treasury.

[Michael Ejercito]

Putin really should have studied history.

[The Encogitationer]

Putin doesn't even know the history of his own people's dealings with Napoleon, who forgot that an army runs on it's stomach and whose men had to eat their own horses.

[Truthfulness]

Actually, Napoleon's failure to invade Russia had to do with ridiculously cold climates, not ration issues. Your argument doesn't stand, and should not be used as a knock against Putin.

[mtrueman]

"If you can mobilize everybody in one direction, sometimes they mobilize us all over the cliff."

On the other hand, if you can't mobilize large groups of people to work towards a single goal, you're not going to be able to achieve the big things like winning a war, landing on the moon or building the pyramids.

[The Encogitationer]

Wars can be fought against invaders in a decentralized manner, as could private space venture.

As for the pyramids, those were useless behemoths to get the Pharaohs to a Supernatural Afterworld that doesn't exist, M'Chauffeur.

*Tips rice Paddy hat.*

[mtrueman]

I wrote of winning a war, not fighting one. And so what if it's a private space venture? You still need to mobilize large groups of people to work towards a single goal. That holds true whether it's public or private. Whether or not you approve of the pyramids is immaterial. They still required the mobilization of large groups of people working towards a single goal.

[Truthfulness]

Absolutely. He also fails to recognize that people HAVE come back from the dead before. They were not destroyed, contrary to what The Encogitationer was so proudly adamant about.

[GroundTruth]

Yeah, but the best part is that dictator's reigns often end due to sudden high velocity lead poisoning, or traumatic orthopedic damage because the rope wasn't long enough for their feet to hit the floor.

[Nardz]

Drop leftists, wherever they're found.

[The Encogitationer]

Including Revanchist Eurasian Imperialists, right?

[CE]

It's good to be king.

[Zeb]

Until you notice the Sword of Damocles (which almost everyone uses wrong, BTW).

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Just ban swords!

[Sopater]

Be vary wary of the benevolent dictator... he'll destroy us all.

[The Encogitationer]

When people haves asked me what I would do if I had absolute power, I told them I'd abdicate my position, clear out my Fearless Leader Lair, then have it razed with bulldozers so that no one else could take the role either.

My reply to Rothbard's hypothetical of "a free society at the touch of a button" is not to grant the premise of the question. Anything that could be push-buttoned into existence could be push-buttoned away just as easy.

[edbeau99]

Since no one else mentioned it, I will just remind people that the quote at the start of the article, about a government big enough to give you everything you want, came from Ronald Reagan, one of the two great Presidents of the 20th Century.

[The Encogitationer]

I thought it was Barry Goldwater.

[holder186richard]

That is the thing you get with despots says Norberg Assuming that administration is sufficiently large to give you anything it is adequately large to remove everything from you here’s https://writinguniverse.com/free-essay-examples/dance/ Writing a dance paper will help you identify who is most experienced in dance works of art Many dance forms focus on the beginning of the dance Archaeologists say that the main evidence of movement dates back to 3300 BC.

[GioCon]

Gee, I'm glad GW Bush had all those "free thinking" advisors to warn him about the foolishness of invading Iraq. And what about the "free thinkers" in Obama's administration who leveled with him about his disasters in Syria and Libya? The fallacies of Norberg's view are first, that Putin acted alone instead of in consultation with other government leaders; second that the invasion was a failure for Russia, which so far it clearly is not; and third, that the US operates differently -- even after two decades of military failures to prove otherwise. Norberg is a joke, and by not challenging his crazy comments, so are you Stoss.