I almost did not read the extract below by Mattias Desmet, which began with an account of his plane trip, and changing seats with a well, minority. But I persisted and was rewarded with some more meaty comments about the types of tyranny on the market at present. We read frequently of the tyranny of the globalist oligarchs, backed up by an army of mind controllers: "These oligarchs first amassed their wealth on a battlefield devoid of ethical awareness; then, they purchased Congress through lobbying and bribes; that Congress passed laws placing them above the law; from this emerged a state structure that hides the most anti-democratic system in history under the banner of democracy. This state apparatus allows them to wage a devastating, plundering war abroad through regime-change machinery, subjecting the entire world. Once that external war is over, their urge for domination will turn fully toward their own population. The ultimate goal of the oligarchs is a world population shackled and bound, groaning in the chains of a merciless, transhumanist surveillance state."
Then there are other forms off tyranny, such as that delivered by state bureaucracies, just think Centrelink, ATO and Child Support. This is truly Max Weber's (1864-1920) "iron cage of capitalism," brought about by rationalisation: "The seemingly unstoppable rise of regulatory systems, which began at the start of the 19th century, is itself a consequence of a rationalistic worldview and the isolation it brought about. This new worldview directed its gaze outward, believing that Truth could be reached by observing facts with the eyes and then drawing rational conclusions. Thus, human attention focused on the visible surface of things; rationalism literally brought about a "surface-ification" of the experiential world."
I would list many more cases of tyranny, where in fact raw power leads to oppression; the tyranny of the medical system, well seen during Covid, and the universities as well, which through the international student supermarket scam, have created an accommodation crisis, displacing Aussies from homes and leading to tent cities. That too, is tyranny.
https://words.mattiasdesmet.org/p/some-notes-on-tyranny-against-the
"There are various forms of tyranny in this world. There is the tyranny foreseen by Aldous Huxley, exercised by globalist oligarchs and their army of "mind-manipulators." These oligarchs first amassed their wealth on a battlefield devoid of ethical awareness; then, they purchased Congress through lobbying and bribes; that Congress passed laws placing them above the law; from this emerged a state structure that hides the most anti-democratic system in history under the banner of democracy. This state apparatus allows them to wage a devastating, plundering war abroad through regime-change machinery, subjecting the entire world. Once that external war is over, their urge for domination will turn fully toward their own population. The ultimate goal of the oligarchs is a world population shackled and bound, groaning in the chains of a merciless, transhumanist surveillance state. That's tyranny indeed.
But there are other forms of tyranny. Take the tyranny of bureaucracy, for instance. It's loosely connected to the tyranny of the oligarchs but is not identical. Bureaucratic rule emerges even in the absence of oligarchs. Everywhere, people crave rules. In small and large businesses, in academic departments, in family settings—there must be clarity about what is allowed and what is not. We need to know where we can drive, bike, and walk; if an accident happens, it must be clear who violated the rules and thus is responsible for damages.
A highly developed bureaucratic system is a tyranny without a tyrant, said Hannah Arendt. In such a system, the rules choke everyone, but there is no one to turn to. Everyone is merely a cog in the vast machinery of rules, and no one has control over the larger machine.
The seemingly unstoppable rise of regulatory systems, which began at the start of the 19th century, is itself a consequence of a rationalistic worldview and the isolation it brought about. This new worldview directed its gaze outward, believing that Truth could be reached by observing facts with the eyes and then drawing rational conclusions. Thus, human attention focused on the visible surface of things; rationalism literally brought about a "surface-ification" of the experiential world.
This superficiality also manifested in terms of identity: people began to focus more on the image of themselves as seen with their own eyes—in the mirror, in photos, or on Instagram. A certain amount of psychic energy shifted from the inner world—ethical awareness—to the surface of the body. Concretely speaking, we now direct a major part of our attention to our outward appearance. In itself, this isn't a problem; however, if the amount of psychological energy invested in the idealized outer image crosses a certain threshold and becomes the guiding force in psychological life, then the human being gets lost in the world of appearances.
In such a case, the outer ideal image isolates us from the world around us—primarily from other people—and hinders the spontaneous emergence of empathy. In this way, humanity builds the walls of the prison of the Ego higher, brick by brick, becoming ever more trapped within it. This explains the simultaneous rise of two interconnected phenomena in our culture over the past few centuries: narcissism and loneliness (or disconnectedness). Understanding these two phenomena is key to understanding what is really happening in our culture.
This brings us to the final tyranny, the one most often forgotten, but also the most crucial: the tyranny of the Ego. The human being harbors a tyrant in their own bosom. The outer ideal people try to live up too, is imposed by society, by an Other; we do not choose it ourselves. Thus, we become slaves the Other that indicates the ideal images. It dictates how we must look, how we must live. And as we strive to embody that ideal imposed by the Other, we lose contact with ourselves; we lose contact with the soulful body, that resonating phenomenon hidden behind the ideal image.
In the isolation of the Ego-prison, we lose the connection with the Other, the Soul connection, the bond between resonating bodies. We lose the awareness that we are ultimately one with the Other, an awareness that lay at the foundation of mystical experience and the ethical principles that naturally flowed from this experience that in the end all boil down to this: be kind to others, because you are the Other. The divide between yourself and the other, to a certain extent, only exists in the world of appearances.
The end result of the Rise of the Ego is an atomized society where people no longer live with but next to and against each other, entangled in a merciless struggle to survive (or, conversely, stepping out of the exhausting rat race through suicide).
This tyranny of the Ego rages within every person. And behind the Ego lies the ultimate tyrant, a metaphysical destructive force. This force eventually devours even those who serve it, luring its servant with the promise of money and power, only to make them into pure slaves. It is at this level that the real enemy resides—not in an oligarch or a bureaucrat, but in this force that destroys human bonds, isolates people, and makes them susceptible to indoctrination and propaganda, causing them to gather into blind and murderous masses; the force that always convinces the human being that other human beings are the enemy; the same force that insists more rules are needed to channel the growing tensions between atomized people. There can be no outer tyranny without inner tyranny.
***
I am in the U.S. at a historical moment. The essence is not a choice between two presidents, it's the position you take in the more fundamental revolution humanity goes through. The American elections play out on the surface of an underlying, brewing metaphysical process. A president has only limited impact on this process; some influence it for the better, others for the worse. Ultimately, every political solution depends on the extent to which a change for the better occurs in the population, the extent to which a new awareness can arise that transcends the rationalistic worldview and its inherent destructiveness.
And that, in turn, depends on the act of speaking. A sincere word is a word that breaks through the Ego, the world of superficial appearances. Any social system without sincerity, without that Act of Speech that connects people from Soul to Soul, eventually becomes a tyranny. Ultimately, the only way to contribute to overcoming the tyranny outside ourselves is to tackle the tyranny within