When it comes to the electorate, there are four
types of people.
First, there are those who submit themselves to authority with an almost childlike trust. They imagine - often quite sincerely - that those who govern them must also have their best interests at heart, and that wisdom and benevolence naturally accompany power.
Second, there are those who obey not from trust or confidence but from fear or apprehension. They are riddled with internal doubt, yet they consent in order to avoid the repercussions.
These two kinds of people - though they seldom intend it - have, at best, furnished every government with top-down inefficiencies, and, at worst, furnished every tyranny in history with its power and control. That is, no political party has ever ruled by its own competence or strength alone; it is encouraged and carried along by the sub-critical persuasions of group one and the compliance of group two.
But third and fourth consist of two very different groups. Those who will look authority in the face, reject it, and challenge it. Those who say “I see what you're doing, but I'm not having it,” are either a force for good or for bad, depending on the individuals in question. Some reactionary groups - who we’ll call category three - are rather toxic and unwholesome, and in many cases comprise individuals as bad as, or worse than, groups one and two.
But some - who we’ll call group four - have the hearts, minds and wisdom to resist, hold politicians to account, and be a force for good and positive change.
Try to be in group four, dear reader, because it’s only group four types who give this nation genuine hope - the ones who, when they reach critical mass, see to it that authoritarian systems lose the compliance necessary to sustain themselves, and become disempowered.
