Reply #66: Simple formulae [View All]

Troops cannot be relied upon to face down their own people. In Romania special fanatical shock troops only loyal to the dictator were grimly taken down by the lesser armed military with the citizens joining them side by side. In most countries, troops as foreign as possible, preferably with grudges against the locals, are imported for suppression. They still have to worry about the reaction of local military, even long term. When you have to use your outward protective military for internal propping of the regime, the regime is de facto weak. Those that define strength by the willingness to use brute force have lost lawful, actual, and stable legitimacy. Some strength. Bullies and clubs versus the majority.

The mind washing strength is likewise fragile and a sign of weakness, dependence on a structure of lies and submission.

Theses "strengths" are all false substitutes for true democratic power which is dissatisfying to central government power gods for all its checks and limits. "Strong" means knowing how to lead and serve the real thing, not making the thing false and malleable to an idiot's whim. Which idiot whim, deadly and mad, is what the elitist models all trend to very very quickly. I suppose humanity in its aggregate, balanced and natural, can be very stupid and impractical as well, but organically it has a better chance of adapting to reality than a limitless power mad few individuals. At least, impatient as activists of any stripe are about the masses, humanity gets what it deserves. Those who would "strongly" save it never get as much play as those who careen into selfish black holes and can be brought down by the "stronger" methods of assassination and lies the just cannot stoop to(at least as easily).