WEBVTT - Selects: How Dictators Work 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.840 Hey, everybody, it's me Josh. For this select I've chosen 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:08.879 our twenty seventeen episode on Dictators, how much the world 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:11.440 can change in just a few years. We mentioned a 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:14.840 couple of times in this episode that authoritarianism was on 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.239 the wane and that it was being replaced by good 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.400 old democracy. I'm sad in the report that has changed 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:24.520 in recent years as authoritarianism has come barreling back and 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.760 in some surprising places. Listen to this episode to find 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:28.920 out why that's a bad thing. 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:40.920 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.600 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:52.520 Charles w Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there, and it's 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:53.960 twenty seventeen. 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:56.200 Jerry our benevolent dictator. 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:01.080 Yeah for real, she's got those lis that she wears 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:03.200 all the time in sunglasses. 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:07.600 I was just commenting and I thought, this is a 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:09.959 pretty good article here from How Stuff Works. 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.000 Yeah, yeah, I've heard that before. 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:14.520 Who wrote this one? Do you have that on there? 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:14.720 No? 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:17.160 I always have it on there, and you didn't have 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:17.520 it today. 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:19.520 It might be a Shane of Freeman joint. 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:23.119 I think it may be that sounds familiar. Yeah, anyway, 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:25.360 it's a good one. Yeah, and here it is. 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.960 That was word for word my intro that you just stole. 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:35.440 Well, my mind reading classes have been paying off, chuck. 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:37.960 Yes, have you ever lived under a dictatorship? 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:39.800 Not exactly. 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:44.600 No, No, I haven't either. Yeah, and I think we 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.560 should kind of consider ourselves fairly lucky. Sure, because it 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:53.200 turns out that not only were we born in a 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.400 country that most people would argue is not a dictatorship, 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:58.640 although you can find plenty of websites that argue that 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.400 it is. Yeah, it's been for the last several years, 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:05.280 possibly even for the most part, most people would say 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:07.320 it's not a dictatorship. So we were lucky to be 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:09.680 born in a country that isn't a dictatorship. But not 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.120 only that, we're lucky to be born in a time 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:18.600 when dictatorships have become fairly hard to find, comparatively speaking, 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:24.880 because dictatorships were basically the way that people were ruled 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:29.760 for thousands of years. Yeah, up until very recent times, 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.600 around the time of the Enlightenment, when the idea of 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:38.920 individual liberties and the protection of those individual liberties became 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:40.240 kind of widespread. 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:43.560 Yeah, and this article kind of starts off. I thought 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:48.359 it was I thought it was interesting that you don't often. Well, 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:50.920 first of all, the word dictator is just one like 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:53.800 the one who dictates the thing. It's kind of funny 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.880 when you break down the actual definition. Yeah, you're like, oh, well, yeah, 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:57.960 that makes a lot of sense. 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.400 Then it's the guy who paces back and fourth in 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.120 front of the desk while somebody's typing what he's saying. 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:07.080 Take dictation. Yeah, but they don't call themselves that very often, 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.240 although it has happened before we get into the history. 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:16.200 It's we should point out that like Castro and Saddam Hussein, 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:21.320 you never hear them say I'm dictator as a bad rap, 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.480 you know, I'm the dictator Fidel Castro. 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.400 Yeah, it's like how propaganda got turned into pr Yeah, they. 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:32.280 Will call themselves premier or president or chancellor or furer 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:38.320 boss of you. Kim Jong Ill holds three titles, and 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:40.720 I think he's looking for a fourth and fifth like 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:41.160 as we. 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.360 Speak, well, he's in the ground his son. 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:46.360 Oh wait, I got this too confused, right, Yeah, well 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:49.920 he held three titles, Yes he did. I imagine, Well, 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.440 his son probably holds four. Then he probably found that fourth. 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:53.960 Just made one up. 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:56.600 Did you know though, that there's like a you know, 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:00.760 the Kim Jong un is the supreme leader of North Korea, 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:05.080 but he actually technically shares power with two other officials 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.120 as well. They have basically a triumvirt going there. That 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:08.880 was news to me. 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:11.880 Yeah. Those guys are called Keep Quiet one and Keep 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:12.440 Quiet two. 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.840 Yeah. I was just looking up some of his greatest 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:20.400 hits recently. Yeah, and Kim Jong un alone has already 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:25.560 started to amass several but one was a North Korean leader, 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.839 pretty high ranking official was executed with an anti aircraft 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:34.440 machine gun for slouching or falling asleep at a meeting. 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.919 Holy cow, right, but do you hear stuff like imagine 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:39.000 what that would do to a body? 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.160 Yeah, oh my god. But you should take that kind 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:43.920 of stuff with a grain of salt, especially when it's 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.080 coming out of North Korea, because we have really virtually 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:49.760 no idea what's going on day to day over there, 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:52.920 even big events like that. Even if it is true 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:55.560 that that guy was executed with an anti aircraft gun, 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.080 whether or not it was for falling asleep during a 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:02.360 meeting or something like that, remains to be seen. 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:05.080 Yeah, you're saying, take any information with a grain of salt. 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:07.680 Yes, yes, it's good advice. Thanks. 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:14.440 But as Shana I believe. Shana points out that dictators 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:16.240 do have some things in common, and one of the 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:19.080 big ones is is almost one hundred percent of the 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.480 time a dictator doesn't come to power through an election. 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:24.960 They're usually not freely elected to that position. 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.200 No, but they have been. They have been, yeah, pretty 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:29.400 prominently like Hitler. 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.479 Yeah, well he was an electored though. Wasn't he named chancellor? 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:39.800 Yes, by the elected president though, right, but he still 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:44.480 wasn't elected. No, I guess that's true. Okay, fine, well. 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:45.560 Let's get into history then. 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.960 All right, so you say dictator's got a bad it's 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:51.960 gotten a bad rap over the years, right. 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:53.400 As far as calling yourself that, I think so. 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.920 But it officially originally and I couldn't. I saw a 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.200 couple of references to Greece. But it seems to be Rome, 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:06.960 classic Rome, classic Rome. Yeah, trips coming into the party 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:09.160 and everybody's like, that's classic room. 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.719 He tried to walk through that screen door it wasn't open. 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:17.000 So classical Rome. How about that? It seems to be 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:22.080 an invention of classical Rome. Right. There was a station 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.080 called dictator. There was an office basically, and in ancient 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:31.480 Rome the leadership was held by two men called councils, 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:34.960 and they were equally powerful from what I understand, Consuls 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:41.119 council Console. Okay, sure, right, And when something went down 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.920 and stuff hit the fan, the Romans had a tradition 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:50.040 of appointing one of the councils dictator, which is basically 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:55.480 an emergency investment of unparalleled power into this one person. 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.760 And the whole thinking behind it was when you were 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.240 faced with an emergency. See, when the state was faced 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:03.640 with an emergency, you needed somebody who could basically get 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:04.160 stuff done. 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:05.359 Yeah, like a single voice. 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:06.840 Yeah, it didn't have to go to the Senate to 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:10.880 ask anything, didn't have to go worry about making the 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:15.400 wrong move. The dictator couldn't be held criminally liable for 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:16.120 their decisions. 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:18.680 Yeah, didn't have to worry about not being invited to 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.080 the other consuls Christmas party the next year. 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:24.000 Right, the other council wanted to be invited to the 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:28.000 dictators Christmas party. That's right. So there was an investment 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.679 of these emergency powers in this one person. And usually 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.440 I saw one year. This article says it lasted for 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.080 six months, and then the dictator would be like, wow, 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:37.880 that was a while ride. I'm going back to my 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.760 normal life. The rebellion has been quelled or the siege 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:43.160 is over, something like that. 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.120 Yeah, And interestingly, there were a few rules. They couldn't 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:48.960 be held legally responsible for their actions, right, big one 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:53.600 It says, couldn't be in an office longer than six months, 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.600 although I think I think they were there to handle 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.520 the situation as kind of as long as that took. Yeah, 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:00.160 for the most part. 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.120 But there were also guys who are like, whoa, I 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.040 like the feel of this. Yeah, I'm not giving this up. 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.800 And they'll say, well you have to, we say, and 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.640 then they said, well I'm the dictator and they said 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:13.400 we hadn't thought this all the way through. 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.040 Yeah, that's true. Yeah, they could change Roman law and 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:21.360 the constitution. They couldn't use public money and less other 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:23.240 than what the Senate said you could use it for. 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.600 So they supposedly still and these are the official rules, 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:30.120 you know, as we see coming up here. People bent 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.679 these rules and they couldn't leave Italy was the last one. 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:35.880 Oh, this is a good one. And they would have 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.720 like Colombo come in and deliver that last bit we look, 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:42.240 just don't leave Italy for a while. 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:47.839 Okay, that's your Colombo impression. Yeah, he sounded just like 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:48.440 Josh Clark. 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:49.319 Thought it was spot on. 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:54.679 So this kind of happened here and there until about 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:59.480 two two BC, and then about one hundred years after 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:05.640 that gentleman named Lucius Cornelius Sulla. I love all these 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:10.560 Roman dictators sound like either seventies like black exploitation movie 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:15.080 stars or Roman gladiators. Sure, so he was appointed dictator 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.520 without a term limit and didn't have these restrictions, and 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.520 so this sort of changed the game from here on out. 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.839 Yeah, and he actually wanted Caesar dead. So Caesar ran 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.400 off and joined the army Julius Caesar, I should say, 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:33.480 and just basically laid low until Sulla died. And then 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.560 Caesar came back and he was appointed counsel and then 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:42.760 dictator himself. He succeeded Sola, right, Yes, and Caesar is 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:46.080 very well known to be a dictator. But he actually, 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.400 if you look at the stuff he did, he was 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.480 a friend to the people. He forgave debts among. 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:54.319 The benevolent dictator pretty much. 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:59.160 Yeah, among the middle and lower classes. He improved infrastructure, 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:03.960 He he basically went to bat for the lower classes, 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.560 which threatened the elite because he made him immensely popular. 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:11.840 Plus he was a dictator, so he actually created a 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.520 he staged to coup to become a dictator, right, to 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:16.360 gain power. 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:17.880 Yeah, which we'll talk about a little more. 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.920 And then a coup was plotted against him and he 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:25.120 was assassinated by the ruling elite of the Senate. 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:29.920 On my birthday. Yeah, well a long time before my birthday, 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:31.200 you know what I mean. 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.480 Back in nineteen seventy one. 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.320 Yeah, I mean, we've tossed out benevolent dictator a couple 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.080 of times, kidding around, but that's a real term, and 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.160 that generally means a dictator who for the most part, 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:44.880 isn't just in it for themselves and they are trying 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:46.200 to make things better for the people. 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.079 Right, But it depends on your perspective. 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:49.880 Well, yeah, exactly. 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.280 So, like the ruling elite found him very threatening, they 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.720 would not have considered him benevolent at all. Right, But 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:57.920 like say, the average plebeian would have been like, I 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:00.840 love Caesar. Yeah, give me some more of the coins 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:01.760 with his face on it. 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:05.760 Yeah, I mean followers of Castro still after his death 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.199 say he was a benevolent dictator, sure, but again people say, no, 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.600 it's perspective, it's a subjective term. 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:12.160 Basically. 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:18.920 Napoleon actually he came to power again like many dictators, 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.800 in a state of emergency, and he was actually a 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:26.160 benevolent dictator in a sense because he did a lot 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:28.440 of great things for a while for the people. 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:33.480 Right. He was extremely popular. Yeah, he was undefeated at 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.600 the time that he rose to power. He was appointed 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:38.559 counsel and then he said, you know what, let's go 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:40.600 a little further that I'm going to call myself emperor. 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.680 And they said, oh, okay, Napoleon, what could possibly go 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:44.280 wrong with that? 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.040 Yeah, well, first he was named consul. Then he was like, 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:49.520 I think consul for life has a better ring to it. 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:52.920 And then that wasn't enough, so he's like, let's just 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.640 shorten that. Like you said, though, he was super popular 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:01.240 because he was undefeated as a military leader. He balanced 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.720 the budget, he reformed government, he wrote the civil law, 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:07.040 which a lot of his is still around today in France. 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:10.080 Yeah, civil law, right, not too bad. He had a 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:14.520 lasting impact, for sure, he did. But again again to 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.360 call him benevolent. If you remember a parliament who was 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.960 thrown out of one of the windows of parliament. Right, 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:24.760 he took over, You probably wouldn't be like, you're so benevolent. Right. 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.240 He also controlled had an iron thumb on the press, 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:32.480 He controlled every fative government. He had a spies working 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:36.200 for him. So it's not like he wasn't just you know, 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:38.280 Buds of the Clown. 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:42.719 No, Boz of the Clown was super shady. No. If 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:44.680 you put all that together, though, Chuck, you get the 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:50.800 impression of why historians considered Napoleon the first modern dictator. 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:51.199 Yeah. 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:53.800 He checked basically every box there was. He had it 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:54.440 figured out. 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:56.280 He drew new boxes and checked those. 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.880 Right, he said, all dictators to follow, here's your box. 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:02.440 I just looked down at your notes and I want 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:04.520 to show you something. I think we should take a break. 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:09.000 But before then, okay, Chuck, I think you should see this. 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:11.200 Yeah. 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:16.240 So in this article on dictators from How Stuff Works, 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:21.680 there's a sidebar is what they're called in web print parlance. Yeah, 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.520 just a little extra bit, and the title of the 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:25.959 subbar is Darth Dictator. 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:27.160 That's all we need to say. 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.040 And it talks about Emperor Palpatine in his rise. And 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:34.360 Chuck had his xt out ye and I independently Xi 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.400 migne out as well. So we won't be talking about 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:37.280 that today, everybody. 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.319 No, but let's do take that break and we'll discuss 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:42.240 that in private, so you don't get to know about it, 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:42.959 and we'll be right back. 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:49.760 Definitely should now, Lars Chuck and Ryan. 0:13:51.559 --> 0:14:08.839 Sk All, Right, so we're back. We talked about one 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:11.480 of the things that dictators had in common is they 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:16.920 generally aren't elected in it like a fair election. They 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:22.920 are usually ruling autocracies. A lot of times they have 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:25.400 what's called the totalitarian regime. 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:27.440 Yeah, we should talk about that. 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.240 That's a big one. That means you, like you were 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.200 in control of all the news and all the media 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:34.400 that gets out about everything. 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:39.240 Right, So there's a lot of confusion over the difference 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:47.720 between authoritarianism and totalitarianism. And a totalitarian regime is authoritarian, 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:52.040 but not all authoritarian regimes are totalitarian. Yeah. An authoritarian 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:56.800 regime is where the government is headed by one single leader. Yeah, Okay, 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.680 there's no parliament, there's no courts, there's no nothing that 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:03.160 the that leader doesn't either control or just doesn't exist 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:07.360 to counter that leader's decisions. A totalitarian regime is like 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:08.040 you were saying. 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:09.080 I think you're missing in the eye there. 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:14.320 They could. It's like deletrious. They control everything, not just 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.920 the government. They control the social aspects of life in 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.640 that country. They control the economy of that country, they 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:25.600 control the media, they control everything. It's totalitarian. 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:33.480 Personal freedoms might be vanquished, might be there might be police, 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.760 secret police, there might be spies spying on citizens. It's 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:39.080 not a good way to live. 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:44.000 No, And also you will probably be encouraged that as 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.920 a citizen, to spy on your fellow citizens, because authoritarian 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.840 regimes quickly learn that if you have a large population, 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:54.520 it's kind of tough and very expensive to keep tabs 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:57.560 on everybody. So if you have a secret police going 0:15:57.600 --> 0:15:59.720 around and people are aware that there is a secret police, 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.000 to behave themselves more. And if you can get your 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:04.360 citizens to kind of keep an eye on one another, 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.320 everybody's gonna behave even further. That's a terrible way to live. 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:10.480 Well, And you know what, Like it sounds like a 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:14.440 totalitarian ruler would be. I bet there's a lot of 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.000 paranoi that goes along with that. Like when you're in 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.120 that kind of position, Oh, if you're the ruler, Yeah, 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.800 it's not just like rule everything. So it's all good. 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:24.000 Like at that point, you don't know who to trust you, right, 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:27.680 you're probably always looking over your shoulder, you know. It's 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:31.800 not like why bother with all that? Right, Like you 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:33.440 know it's gonna end badly. 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:38.720 Just kickback and light of dooby instead? Why bother with 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:39.160 all that? 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.760 Many times there they foster what's known as a cult 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:47.400 of personality, and this is a big one. Yeah, if 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.760 you went into and saw Saddam Hussein's Iraq, or you 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.960 go to North Korea or in the times of like 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:56.240 Lenin and Stalin, you're going to see a lot of 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.920 posters and statues of these leaders everywhere. 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:06.240 Yeah, oh yeah, you're taught that the leader is basically 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:07.119 the state. 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:08.399 Who is this the leader? 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:12.600 Right, and the state is the most important thing. But 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.360 the state is personified by the leader. And sometimes they'll 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:17.040 even go so far as the state by the way, 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:21.560 the leader is descended directly from God. Yeah, so go 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.000 make a painting of a kid, right, and we're going 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:25.399 to put it up in the town square. 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:27.960 Who was the one who had the statue rotated to 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:28.640 face the sun? 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:32.240 He was the head of Turkmenistan. He changed his name 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:36.720 when he took over in nineteen ninety one. His birth 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:42.400 name was Supermarat Niyazov, but he changed his name to Turkmenbashi, 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:47.400 and then he started naming everything in Turkmenistan Turkmenbashi, including 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.920 the month of January. But he created that statue. 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.240 Yeah, and he had the golden statue rotated to always 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:55.000 face the sun. 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:57.720 So yeah, he was always facing the sun. And he said, 0:17:58.000 --> 0:17:59.880 read that quote, man, that quote is awesome. 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:04.840 Oh right, he said, quote. I'm personally against seeing my 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.440 pictures and statues in the streets, but it's what the 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:08.080 people want. 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:11.919 We got that, I think from an ode list. 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.399 Actually, yeah, we'll probably pepper in more of those, Okay, 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:18.040 But I mean, I hope this drives home the point 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:26.520 that these totalitarian dictators, they're narcissists, their megalomaniacs. They are 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:30.919 obviously paranoid, otherwise they wouldn't need to rule with an 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:36.119 iron fist. And yeah, it's it's not a good way 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:39.359 to run a country. Like I said, it always ends badly. 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:42.320 I guess to get caught up in the power and 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:44.159 they don't see what history has taught us time and 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:44.680 time again. 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:49.680 I wish we knew what it was because you can 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.200 look around, especially in the world today and see country 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:54.920 after country after country sliding down that rabbit hole. 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:57.040 Well, it's a mental disorder on their part, I think. 0:18:57.160 --> 0:18:59.280 But it doesn't just have to be there, doesn't just 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.679 have to be like a single leader. Like even liberal 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.919 democracies are starting to slide down that hole where like 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:08.760 they want all the information possible on everybody and ultimately 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.439 to keep control. You know, but is it based on 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:13.840 fear or is it based on paranoia, or is it 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.840 based on that desire to hang on to power or 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.359 what Witch's brew? Of all those things, is it that 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:22.560 creates that? Why do we keep doing it over and 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.080 over and over again. Yeah, because it always is the 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:30.240 it's the it's the death knell for a civilization. When 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.280 it's when the leadership starts doing that, it's unsustainable. 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:35.600 Yeah. But and we'll talk a little bit about how 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:39.760 they end, but it always is badly. Like you see 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:43.280 like Saddam Hussein and power like in these military uniforms, 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:46.320 and then you see this like sad old man pulled 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:47.280 out of a fox hole. 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.200 Yeah, it looks like she's washed up on Gilligan's Island 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:50.639 or something. 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.320 Like that, or Noriega like wasting away in prison, like 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:55.199 begging to get out in a wheelchair. 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:57.240 And I would like to know the story behind that, 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:01.240 because Noega, Yeah, Panama on the UA, we're pretty good friends. 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:03.800 Then all of a sudden, the US invades, and now 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:06.640 Manuel Noriega is in prison in Miami and has been 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:10.800 for thirty years. Them went down that prison, is he Oh, 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:13.320 that's right, and then they transferred him to uh. 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:17.080 Well outside the Panama Canal. Ironically, Oh really, yeah, he's 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:19.159 in some prison there. He's like in a wheelchair and 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.400 in his early eighties and just yeah, not doing so hot. 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.280 But he served his whole sentence I think in Miami, 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:28.960 and then they transferred him to Panama to phil to 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.800 carry out another sentence down there. Oh really yeah, wow, yeah, 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:34.960 but something went down that I don't know about. I'm 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:39.040 intensely curious to know. If anybody knows out there, tell me. 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:41.359 I'm sure you could find that up pretty easy, right. 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:43.600 Apparently not. 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.360 I was just kidding. I bet it's highly guarded secret. 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:49.879 You think, even after all these years, I don't know. 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:54.080 Noriega had motor he was a motormouth. I'm sure he 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:55.359 told everybody who'd listened. 0:20:56.119 --> 0:21:01.080 Uh, well, we mentioned Hitler earlier. He, like you said, 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:05.360 although not elected, was legally installed. He was appointed chancellor 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.720 by President Paul von Hindenberg, and then once Hindenburg died, 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:13.720 Hitler said, you know what, there's this German word furor 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:16.399 that means leader, and he went, why don't we just 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:19.560 make that my new title, which is because we don't 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:22.000 really need a president and a chancellor. I can be 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.639 both dudes, and then eventually I'll just kill myself in 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:26.160 a bunker. 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:27.040 Yeah. 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:32.320 Another I'd say sad end, but just pitiful end. 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:33.840 You know, that's a great word for. 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:37.240 Sad indicates that, you know what I mean. I don't 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:38.520