Tyrants: Power, Injustice, and Terror

275 Pages·2019·1.485 MB·English

by  Waller R. Newell

Tyrants
Power, Injustice, and Terror
Updated Edition
WALLER R. NEWELL
Carleton University, Ottawa
Tyrants
Updated Edition
Theforcesoffreedomarechallengedeverywherebyanewlyenergizedspiritoftyranny,
whetherit isJihadist terrorism, Putin’simperialism, ortheambitionsofChina’s dicta-
torship,writesWallerR.Newellinthisengagingexposéofathousanddangers.Wewill
see why tyranny is a permanent threat by following its strange career from Homeric
Bronze Age warriors, through the empires of Alexander the Great and Rome, to the
medieval struggle between the City of God and the City of Man, leading to the state-
buildingdespotsoftheModernAgeincludingtheTudorsand‘enlighteneddespots’such
asPetertheGreat.ThebookexploresthepsychologyoftyrannyfromNerotoGaddafi,
andhowitchangeswiththeJacobinTerrorintomillenarianrevolution.Stimulatingand
enlightening,Tyrants:AHistoryofPower,Injustice,andTerrorwillappealtoanyone
interestedinthedangerposedbytyrannyandterrorintoday’sworld.
waller r. newell is Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Carleton
University, Ottawa, where he helped found and also teaches, in the College of the
Humanities, Canada’sonlyfour-year baccalaureate inthe GreatBooks. Hehashelda
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers and a
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship.
His books include Tyranny: A New Interpretation (Cambridge, 2013); The Soul of a
Leader:Character,ConvictionandTenLessonsinPoliticalGreatness;andTheCodeof
Man: Love, Courage, Pride, Family, Country. He served on thefirst ReaganAdminis-
tration transition team in the areas of humanitarian affairs and human rights. He
receivedhisPhDinPoliticalSciencefromYaleUniversity.
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Contents
Preface page vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: TyrannyTwo Years on 1
TheThreeTypesofTyrannyandtheCaseofNorthKorea 2
ChinaandtheTwenty-FirstCenturyAnti-DemocracyLeague 5
Putin’sRussia 7
MillenarianTyrannyLiveson 9
TheTrumpiad:RiseofaDemagogue? 10
TheAnatomyofTerror 23
TheTrueRootCausesofTerrorism 26
Part One: The Rage of Achilles: From Homeric Heroes toLord and
God of theWorld 31
HomericKingsandHeroes 34
KingsoftheWorld:UniversalMonarchy 40
TyrannyorRepublic?TheEmergenceoftheWest 48
TheGreatestRepublic 67
TheUniversalLandlord:FromRepublictoEmpire 74
Part Two: City ofGod or City of Man? The Tyrantas Modern
State Builder 84
TheFalloftheWest 91
FeudalMonarchyandtheGreatChainofBeing 96
God’sShadowonEarth:TheOttomanCaliphate 100
PrincesandPeoples:TheRebirthoftheWest 107
ByGodandMyRight:ThoseFascinatingTudors 114
TheTyrantasStateBuilderLivesOn:BenevolentDespotism 132
v
vi Contents
PartThree: The Eagles Will Drop Dead from theSkies: Millenarian
Tyranny from Robespierre to Al Qaeda 146
TheNaturalConditionofMan:Rousseau’sMurderousDream 149
RobespierreandtheAlgebraofMassMurder 153
TheHallmarksofMillenarianTyranny 156
TheTimeoftheGreatNoon:MillenarianRevolutionGoes
Underground 165
NoSecondThermidor:MillenarianTyrannyReturns 174
TheNumber-OneLeninist 178
TheNationalSocialistWorldBlessing 183
TheFührer 190
FromNationalSocialismtoThird-WorldSocialismtothe
InternationalJihad 200
TheTyrannicalPersonality 204
MillenarianTyrannyToday 208
AWorldwideCaliphate:Jihadism’sUtopianVision 212
TheNuclearRepublicofGod 214
TerrorismIsaMeanstoanEnd:RevolutionaryUtopia 221
Conclusion: How Democracy Can Win 224
AllAboardfortheTyrannyTour 224
VladimirPutin:ReformerandKleptocratwithaDashofthe
Millenarian 226
TheTourContinues:DemocracyandtheTyrannicalTemptation 230
WhatShouldtheWestDo? 234
TheFrontiersofTwenty-FirstCenturyRevolution 239
AHomeopathicCurefortheTyrannicalTemptation 242
Reading for Further Interest 245
Index 253
Preface
When Russian President Vladimir Putin orchestrated an invasion of the
Crimea,inviolationoftheterritorialintegrityofUkrainetowhichtheRussian
government itself had been a signatory, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
remarked in some bewilderment that Putin, with his aggressive militarism,
seemed like a figure out of “the nineteenth century.”
If you agree with that, you should probably stop reading this book right
now.Afterall,won’ttheprogressofhistorytakecareofretrogradeadventurers
like Putin? He can’t be more than a brief detour on our way to the spread of
democracy around the world and the end ofaggression.
If, on the other hand, you believe, like me, that Vladimir Putin is a figure
from every century, then read on. Because this is a book about how and why
tyranny isapermanent featureonthehumanlandscape.It’saboutthekindof
tyrannical governments that have existed throughout history and still do
today – some since ancient times, some specifically connected to the modern
age. It follows the strange career of tyranny from its origins in ancient Greece
and Rome to the state-building despots who brought Europe out of feudalism
into the modern age. Finally, it explains the totalitarian tyrannies that began
withtheJacobinTerrorof1793andcontinuedthroughtheBolsheviks,Nazis,
Chairman Mao, the Khmer Rouge, andtoday’s Jihadists.
This book is also about the often twisted psychological makeup of tyrants,
includingthosewhoaspiretobecometyrants,namelyterrorists.Forterrorists,
aswe’llsee,aretyrantsinwaiting,andtyrannies,onceestablished,continueto
terrorizetheircaptivesubjects.Finally,it’saboutthewaysinwhichtyrantscan
attractrapt and devoted followers to carry out their murderous agenda.
If you find these topics interesting – and above all, necessary for informed
citizens who want to protect and promote democracy – then this book is for
you.It’snotabouteveryformofinjusticeofwhichmaniscapable.Itsfocusis
vii
viii Preface
mainly on the West. But it is based on the belief that tyranny is a permanent
alternative inhumanaffairsandin explaining political action.
The progress of history, if that has actually taken place, has plainly not
gottenridoftyranny.Thegenocidalhorrorsofthelastcentury’stotalitarianism
aresurelyproofofthat,alongwithtoday’saspirantstoaworldwideCaliphate,
such as ISIS. Believing in the progress of history may actually, as we’ll see,
contribute to the spread of tyranny itself. Not only because it lulls us into
thinking that tyranny is fading away, but because all of the worst totalitarian
regimes,afterall,haveclaimedthattheywereonthesideofhistory,bringinga
better world for us all in the future through mass murder and conquest in the
present.
Acrosstheworldtoday,wearewitnessingbothaheroicstrugglefordemoc-
racy and the disturbing strength of tyrannical regimes and movements.
Whether it is the Syrian civil war, Putin’s aggression, or the threat of ISIS,
democracy and tyranny often appear to be in a dead heat. While American
forcesarenowengagedagainstJihadism inIraq, self-identifiedMuslim terror-
istsinspiredbyourenemiesthereconductbrutalattacksonAmerica’sownsoil.
Why is this happening now? How should the West respond? What are the
lessons of history?
The spirit of free self-government has triumphed over tyranny again and
again, from Marathon and Salamis to Waterloo, Dunkirk, D-Day, Solidarity,
and Operation DesertStorm,but democracies seem to undergoperiodic bouts
ofamnesia,unable toidentify tyranny forwhat it is.
I hope this book will help provide a cure for that amnesia. Democracy is a
betterideathantyrannyoneverylevel,andinafairfightitalmostneverloses.
But to defend that idea and make it successful, we need to be aware of its
greatest and most resilient enemy – tyranny.
Acknowledgments
A year as Visiting Fellow in Humanistic Studies at the Beverley Rogers, Carol
C. Harter Black Mountain Institute, the University of Nevada Las Vegas gave
me the opportunity to complete this book free of my normal academic duties,
forwhichIammostgrateful.ApubliclecturefortheBlackMountainInstitute
gave me the opportunity to preview Part Three of this book before an appre-
ciative audience.
Along-standinggroupofformerteachersandcurrentcolleagues,allfriends
as well, and from many walks of life besides the academic, has sustained
me throughout this book, as it has through my earlier books. Even when
I don’t see them for a while, I frequently imagine them reacting to what
I write and hope they approve. They include, in no special order, Thomas
and Lorraine Pangle, Harvey Mansfield, Lynette Mitchell, Charles Fairbanks,
Robert Goldberg, Leah Bradshaw, Catherine and Michael Zuckert, Peter
Ahrensdorf, Stephen Smith, Norman and Karen Doidge, Gary Clewley, Paul
Rahe,CliffordOrwin,RyanBalot,BarryStrauss,GeorgeJonas,GeraldOwen,
Katherine May Anderson, Robert Sibley, Kenneth Hart Green, Sharon Hart
Green, Arthur Fish, Mark Lutz, David Fott, David Azerrad, along with
my Carleton colleagues Tom Darby, Farhang Rajaee, and Geoffrey Kellow,
and former students of mine who are now academic colleagues, including
AlexanderS. Duff and Matthew Post.
Finally, I owe deep thanks to my editor, Robert Dreesen, for his unstinting
support, encouragement, and wise suggestions for improving this book as it
cameintobeing.And,asalways,thankstomywifeJacquelineforhermatchless
editingskills, erudition, and advice – really mycollaborator.
ix

Introduction: Tyranny Two Years on
Since Tyrants was first published two years ago in 2016, the features of the
strange career of tyranny have not fundamentally altered. Yet as I write these
wordsinNovember2018,therehavebeensignificantadditionsandalterations
inthestatusoftyrannyintheworldtoday.NorthKoreaanditsconfrontation
with the United States under President Trump is one. Another is that, in the
temporary abeyance of the direct threat of ISIS and its ambitions to create the
first installment of a world-wide Caliphate in Iraq and Syria, the Twenty-First
Century Anti-Democracy League (as I call it) filled the vacuum. This league is
led by the powerful axis of China, Russia, and Iran, with North Korea as a
juniorpartner,alongwithamotleycrewofdictatorshipsinwhatisstillreferred
toinincreasinglyOrwelliantermsas“thedevelopingworld,”includingCuba,
Venezuela, and much of Southeast Asia and Africa.
We have also witnessed the rise of populist movements in the heart of the
Western liberal democracies themselves, reactions both to the perceived threat
to traditional national communities posed by immigration – particularly from
the Muslim world – and to “global elites” led by the aspiring supranational
authorities of the European Union and the United Nations aiming, these
movementsbelieved,tousurpthesovereigntyofthenation-state.Thisledsome
to speculate on a dangerous longing in Europe, reminiscent of the 1920s and
1930s,foranauthoritarian“strongman,”evidencedbythedisturbingenthusi-
asm among some figures on the far right, like Marie Le Pen, for Vladimir
Putin’s autocratic style of rule in Russia and his rejection of Enlightenment
liberal values. Most surprisingly of all, while we were all looking eastward,
craningourneckstotrackthelikesofLePen,theUKIndependenceParty,and
Hungarian nationalist ViktorOrban as signs ofthispopulistwave, it emerged
on a major scale in the United States itself, with the astonishing victories of
DonaldTrumpinwinningtheRepublicannominationandthenthepresidency.
1