Ancient History

Caligula Appointing His Horse Incitatus to the Consulship, unknown author, 1616–1669. Source: The Art Institute of Chicago

The Roman emperor Caligula ruled for only four years before he was assassinated. Caligula was hated by the Roman people, and historians hated him, too. The tales of his madness and misdeeds are likely exaggerated, and sometimes invented, just to show what a monster he was.

In any case, it seems true that he was mentally unbalanced. He declared himself a god. He spent a fortune on his palace and put up statues of himself. He forced the Senate to watch him dance in the middle of the night. He passed laws to keep people from looking at his bald spot. He mocked and insulted people. He was also a sadist. Among other things, he sometimes locked up the food supplies so the population would starve. He really made politicians mad when he announced his plan to appoint his horse to the Senate, making it clear that he thought an unqualified beast could do just as good a job as anyone else.

His unpopularity reached its peak, and officers of his own Praetorian Guards conspired to kill him. Led by a man Caligula had mocked for having a squeaky voice, they stabbed him to death and then declared his uncle Claudius the new emperor. That's how they did impeachment in 41 A.D.

To this day, Caligula is remembered as a cruel, narcissistic, depraved tyrant. Unqualified political appointees are sometimes compared to Caligula's horse.

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Everything Belongs to Me!

trump and his minions may not be fascists, but they have the attitude of fascists. In their minds, the rules, norms, and laws of a civilized society simply do not apply to them. They are entitled to do what they want and take what they want, at any time and place they want.

We saw this when trump boasted about kissing or grabbing women without permission. We saw it when he refused to pay contractors and workers at his properties. We've seen it many times when his campaign has used music without getting the owners' permission, even when the owners have explicitly told them to stop. We saw it when trump insisted that he could own and possess (and, it seems, display, share, or dispose of) confidential and classified government documents.

Again and again, he and his associates have shown their arrogance, their insistence on privileged status, their contempt toward others, and their disdain for the behavioral norms that make it possible for society to function. Like many fascists before them, they have succeeded in bullying, intimidating, and litigating people into submission.

Most recently, we saw trump and his entourage violate federal law and all expectations of decency, when they chose to film a campaign video at our most sacred national cemetery. Further, members of the group may have assaulted a cemetery official who informed them they were not permitted to film.

And now, in true fascist fashion, they do not admit to being in the wrong. They posted the illegal video they made at the cemetery. Instead of apologizing or simply claiming they were in error due to a "misunderstanding" or "mistake," they are angry at the news organization that first reported the incident. Fascists do not like public scrutiny of their actions.

A trump spokesperson has made a statement accusing the official who was assaulted of being mentally ill, and triumphantly declaring trump "the real Commander in Chief." Fascists are never subtle. Their message is clear: journalists who mention issues that make the boss uncomfortable are "bad reporters" asking "stupid questions." Anyone who tries to get in their way is unfair, crooked, mentally ill, or a liar.

They are above the law - in fact, the boss IS the law. He cannot be restrained or criticized, no matter what outrage he chooses to perform. The rest of us and our expectations of lawful behavior, our hopes for good manners and public dignity, our desire for accountability, are just irritating obstacles along the boss's path toward complete domination.

 

Rallies

There are people who think that holding rallies with enthusiastic crowds somehow proves that a candidate is great in some way. Yet we know that evil dictators throughout history have had big rallies. All kinds of charlatans, crooks, fraudsters, and destroyers started with rallies, tent meetings, well-attended lectures, and parades. It is obvious to mention Mussolini and Hitler, or even Jim Jones, well-known examples of people who used rallies and mass meetings to lure followers into belief systems that would prove disastrous.

A hundred years ago, Benito Mussolini used to travel across Italy, holding huge rallies for fans of his Fascist Party. In October 1922, speaking to a crowd of around 40,000, he urged his followers to march on Rome. Fascist militias began driving toward the capital.

Elected officials wanted to declare a state of emergency and defend the city. The poorly-trained militias probably would have lost any battle with the military, but the King refused to declare martial law. Government officials resigned in protest. The King decided to accept the Fascists, and made Mussolini prime minister.

Mussolini soon became a total dictator, rescinding civil rights, replacing the press with propaganda, and invading Corfu and Ethiopia. Mussolini's career inspired Adolf Hitler, and eventually Italy was aligned with Nazi Germany in World War II. At least 8,500 Italians were murdered in the Holocaust. ^@realrkwest

In 1943, the King, who had had enough, convinced Mussolini's close associates to turn against him, and he was arrested. He escaped and attempted to set up a new government, but in 1945 he realized that defeat was near, and tried to flee the country. He was recognized and shot. A crowd mutilated his corpse and hung it up in the public square. It was eventually buried in an unmarked grave.

 

Do We Need a Dictator to Just Step in and Fix Things?

Dictatorship does not lead to prosperity for the average citizen.

For example, under Mussolini (Italy 1925 - 1945), both imports and exports decreased, and unemployment increased.

Mussolini established bureaucracies and appointed many officials, but very little was ever accomplished. He was mostly concerned with making sure the newspapers reported what he wanted them to say. There were food shortages throughout the country. The national debt skyrocketed. Mussolini's spending on infrastructure and public works was extravagant. Banks and big corporations were given government support. Interest rates went up. In many cases, the rich got richer, but in the meantime, workers got poorer.

Italy was hit hard by the Great Depression of the 1930s. Eventually, the state took over ownership of the banks and most industries. Mussolini focused on increasing his own political power, rather than providing assistance to citizens.

Mussolini was eventually killed by an angry mob.

Nicolae Ceaușescu (Romania 1967-1989) used a secret police force for mass surveillance and suppression of civil rights. He controlled the media.

In an attempt to increase the population, he outlawed all abortions and contraception. This led to the proliferation of overcrowded, dirty orphanages; many neglected and abused children from these institutions had lifelong physical and mental health problems. Thousands of women died from illegal abortions.

Ceaușescu's policy of moving from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy seemed successful at first, but led to unemployment, food shortages, and an energy crisis. Without electricity, people died of the cold in their homes. Prices were high while wages were low. Ceaușescu spent money on big projects and personal luxuries while citizens were freezing and starving.

When anti-government protests began, he ordered the military to fire upon protesters, causing many injuries and deaths. Violent protests spread across the country, and the military defected. Ceaușescu and his wife tried to flee, but they were captured, tried, convicted, and executed. The country was left with a very weak economy that still has not recovered.

Under Hitler (Germany 1933-1945), hourly wages were very low, while most people worked more hours, creating the illusion that individual income had increased.

Germany increased military spending until it became the majority of the economy. Hitler believed that war was the best way for a country to make progress. Prisoners of war and inmates from concentration camps were used as slave labor to support corporations. By 1944, slave labor made up 1/4 of the work force. Even so, unemployment was low. The government used price controls to avoid inflation, and also introduced wage and rent controls.

The military buildup was financed largely through deficit spending. The national debt was enormous. Industries that had been state-owned were privatized, yet subjected to a great deal of government control. Business leaders were expected to fund the Nazi party, and in return, benefited from policies that froze wages and provided slave labor. Profits for big businesses increased, and tax policies were designed to benefit wealthy people. Real wages decreased substantially. Workers could not strike, and could not change jobs without the current employer's consent.

During World War II, imports were harder to get. Rationing was implemented. The government took the property of wealthy Jews and plundered whatever it could in the countries it invaded. Wartime destruction and the British blockade led to the collapse of supply chains. People in occupied territories were used as slave labor, and their children were killed. As the war progressed, Allied bombs destroyed factories and cities. There were catastrophic food and fuel shortages. As defeat loomed, Hitler committed suicide.

Please Control Our Lives

Browsing through social media, it is alarming to see how many people want to give up voting rights and a representative government in favor of a dictatorship.

Like the people who supported Mussolini because "he made the trains run on time," many of these people seem to think dictators will provide them with amenities like cleaner streets, and these things are, in their minds, worth giving up basic freedoms. Other dictator fans imagine that the dictator will share their world view and religion, and will create a society that enforces those ideas on the entire population. They think it's a good idea that dissenters might be imprisoned, expelled from the country, or executed.

It never occurs to them that (a) the dictator will not actually do what they imagine, (b) historically, dictatorships do not create prosperity for average citizens, (c) someday, the tables will turn and the former in-group will become the out-group.