Aristotle on tyrants
Aristotle wrote about the hallmarks of tyranny 2,300 years ago.
Tyranny is its own form of government. While a king and a tyrant are singular and absolute rulers, a tyrant misuses the significant amount of power given to them.
A tyrant works towards his own benefit, while kings work for the welfare of the people. A king might also abdicate the throne if the people want him gone, while a tyrant will remain in power by any means necessary.
Tyranny is a corruption of existing government forms, especially democracies and oligarchies. Tyranny takes the concentration of wealth that the oligarchies have and dismisses the traditions and laws that democracy has.
Usually, a tyrant will rise from the bottom ranks of people, claiming to have the people’s concerns and best interests at heart.
Recognizing tyranny means recognizing a nation’s deeper institutions and social issues. Tyranny can be the byproduct of political dysfunction, economic disparities and the government’s failure to execute its duties.
Though the people look to the tyrant to save them, they ultimately never will. A tyrant will only serve themselves and make the people poor in the process. They will drain their subjects until they can do nothing to resist their rule. They make their subjects poor so that they have no time to plot against them.
Tyrants have no regard for public interests except how those interests affect their own private ends.
Tyrants are highly vocal about the state’s current issues and will claim that they are on the people’s side and that they are the only champion of the common people’s needs and wants.
Once a tyrant is in power, they make sure to mercilessly hold on to that power despite the cost to society.
Sound familiar? Aristotle’s observations remain frightfully true 2,300 years later.