Autocracy is extremely hazardous
Rule by mistrust, censorship, disinformation, indoctrination, and propaganda – in short, FABRICATE “THE TRUTH” according to the wishes of the leader, disregarding the real truth
An autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person.
A dictatorship is often an autocracy. Such systems are in most cases totalitarian where the state strives to control every aspect of life and civil society.
The wish for an effective leader has led some countries to prefer autocracy for the following reasons:
a) it may allow fast decisions to be made, 2) overall communication may be easier, 3) productivity may be improved and 4) handling of crises may be more effective.
However, the value of an autocracy depends entirely on the integrity of the autocratic person. Integrity is imperative.
To counteract opposition, the news media are being censored and the news to the public is corrected or even fabricated centrally to conform to the views of the leader.
In some instances, children from the age of 4-5 years are indoctrinated with the same narrative to ensure future brainless support for the leader.
The population is only exposed to the distorted information of the leader. Other sources of information are being oppressed.
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Power Corrupts
Even if the person initially seems to have the ideal personality profile, his increasing awareness of his unlimited power can lead to him being increasingly a megalomaniac.
The leader instigates self-glorifying and megalomaniac disinformation to brainwash the population to support – and to think like – the leader. This markedly reduces the working brainpower of the country. It makes people closed-minded, disengaged, passive, and brainless. This means total disempowerment of the people. It also means poorer health in the population.
Even if alternative views occur, they will be oppressed by the leader.
Persons – even those close to the leader – who express alternative views may be ridiculed, degraded, or severely punished.
The leader becomes more and more domineering and he increasingly perceives himself as infallible and godlike.
This can have disastrous consequences for his country. His own possibly ill-conceived ideas he can easily make a reality.
A government for the elite, not for the people
There is little or no control in place to counteract the execution of the leader’s potentially brainless endeavors. This is because he surrounds himself only with persons who think like himself.
The leadership group becomes increasingly an isolated and fanatic echo chamber out of touch with the general population of the country.
The leader will seek to attract persons who think like himself and seem to be influential in society. An important group is the oligarchs, who often are rich and influential persons. The leader and the oligarchs seek to gain strength through their mutual support.
The leadership group serves its own interests, not the interests of the people like in a democracy.
The full perspective is lost and constructive criticism and alternative views are neither permissible nor possible.
Autocracies suffer from being in echo chambers
An echo chamber circulates existing views without encountering opposing views, potentially resulting in confirmation bias, which favors evidence that confirms existing beliefs by ignoring evidence that disagrees with those beliefs.
Echo chambers are serious problems in autocracies as the comprehension of reality is markedly compromised due to confirmation bias.
It’s of paramount importance to listen to all sides and carefully consider them before coming to a conclusion.
Confirmation bias will result in perceptual blindness or distortion, illogical interpretation, and bad decision-making.
Echo chambers will increase social and political polarization and extremism. In the end, this can lead to the collapse of the society.
Separation of powers is absent or incomplete in an autocracy
The purpose of a system of separated powers (e.g. executive, legislative, and judicial as in a democracy) is to ensure them to be accountable to each other and to prevent individuals or groups to be ‘all-powerful’.
In an autocracy, the powers are not separated or incompletely separated so that it is too easy for a person or a group to be ‘all-powerful’. This fact is the most important reason for the hazardousness of an autocracy.
Unidirectional information flow leads to a scarcity of good ideas
The information flow is unidirectional – from the leadership to the public, not the other way.
The input of new constructive ideas from the population is a nuisance to the leadership because, by its own definition, it knows best and is always right. The regime is arrogant and self-centered.
The regime has a tendency to produce increasingly megalomaniac and ill-considered ideas that have the potential to seriously harm the country.
The leader’s disinterest in what the people say weakens the country
Society can be likened to a complex organism. A biological organism e.g. an animal is dependent on the input from all its senses to exist and thrive in the natural world.
If for example, it cannot hear, it is markedly handicapped and its chances of survival are markedly reduced.
If the autocratic leadership is deaf to what its people say, it will be extremely handicapped and unable to lead the country to the satisfaction of its people weakening the country markedly.
Rigid thinking and narrow-mindedness bordering on stupidity
Reasons for the scarcity of new ideas include the dogmatism or narrow-mindedness caused by the total embracement of a certain political ideology or religion as the foundation of the ruling of the country. The thinking is too rigid.
No ideology or religion has the appropriate answers to new situations.
A stubborn dogmatic adherence to an ideology will quickly mean that the leadership is unable to provide the best solution to any new situation that can arise now or in the future.
Inability to admit and correct mistakes
The perceived infallibility of the regime makes it unable to admit any mistake it has made. The regime thinks it is always right and never makes mistakes.
When the regime actually has made a mistake, which happens occasionally, it is covered up by other inappropriate actions and masses of disinformation.
Reliance on artificial intelligence
The leadership group relies heavily on artificial intelligence e.g. neural networks. However, those can only deal with previously known situations. New problems or situations they cannot solve (“garbage in – garbage out”).
Sooner or later this attitude will lead to the leadership being out of touch with reality (it has become trapped in its own disinformation – much like in an echo chamber), and the resulting misjudgments can lead to brainless actions that are disastrous to the country and its population.
In our globalized world, this can have significant side effects in other parts of the world.
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Obsession with weapons and military
A prominent feature of autocracy is the paramount importance of the military and weapons. Everybody is considered an enemy. The idea to defend oneself is at the forefront most of the time. Also, the outrageous idea to take other countries is considered justified in the eternal dream to be greater and even more powerful.
Military parades are important in emphasizing the power of the state – both to the people of the country and to other presumably hostile countries.
Male-dominated leadership
It is striking that women constituting half the population have almost no role in the leadership group in autocratic regimes. This male arrogance toward female influence is a major factor explaining the ruthlessness of the policies being practiced.
If females were involved more, policies would surely be much more considerate and humane, and the worst and most outrageous and brainless decisions would be avoided.
Corruption is more pronounced
Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Corruption erodes trust, hampers economic development, and further exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division, and the environmental crisis.
Transparency International (TI) has published the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranks 180 countries “on a scale from 100 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt)”.
Corruption is more marked in autocratic countries.
The economic consequences of corruption are substantial. With more corruption the long-term economic growth and the rate of foreign investment decrease.
The disinformation and lying are causing a brain drain
Intelligent, resourceful, and conscientious people can easily look through disinformation and find out the truth. They will not under any circumstances live under such a regime of lies and oppression.
They will seek to leave the country, causing a considerable brain drain which in the end will weaken the country further. Only the fanatic followers and the naive people in the country will stay, making the remaining population even more fanatic and brainless.
The road to collapse
The biggest problem of autocracies is the echo chamber trap caused by disinformation. The increasingly false narrative that is presented demands even further disinformation to make it plausible to the public.
The leadership group becomes increasingly trapped in its own disinformation. It reaches a point of no return. The narrative becomes so bizarre that it is incredible to even the most naive people in the country, This is the time when the regime and the country will face a total collapse.
Conclusion: The whole idea of autocracy is to let the autocrat rule according to his wishes. The wishes of the population are irrelevant to the autocrat.
Immoral Putin
When Vladimir Putin, an unimportant, small-minded, low-level KGB operative, was rushed to power by a group of Oligarchs in 1999, he was a man without a history. It was the starting point of “the backward evolution of Russia“.
After a period of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) during the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev Russia returned to a state reminiscent of the Evil Empire.
Within a few years, Putin dismantled Russia’s media, wrested control and wealth from the country’s burgeoning business class, and decimated the fragile mechanisms of democracy.
Virtually every opposing voice was silenced, with political rivals and critics driven into exile or to the grave.
Putin has maneuvered his way into absolute – and corrupt – power.
In an astonishingly short time, Putin has destroyed years of progress, making Russia once more a threat to its people and the stability of the world.
Putin’s way of ruling is horrendous. For him, it is natural to lie, falsify history, take other countries, use violence, torture, imprisonment, deportation, abduction of children, and killing, in short, the worst and most inhuman actions you can ever think of. He keeps his position using electoral fraud.
A special atrocity of the Putin regime is the shooting down in eastern Ukraine of a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in 2014. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed.
The disastrous decision to invade Ukraine illustrates the monumental stupidity of an autocratic regime. A decision like that would never be made in a democratic country.
The real reason for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is his jealousy over its successful development towards a Western democracy, which he cannot tolerate. Therefore he wants to reconvert Ukraine to his Russian model or else destroy the country.
The most important critic of Putin was Alexei Navalny who has now died in Arctic Circle jail.
Putin has mistreated the jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny who has condemned Putin’s war against Ukraine.
‘We will not stop fighting’: Daughter of imprisoned Putin critic Alexey Navalny speaks out
High-ranking Russian officials are defecting from the country.
Here is a recent example of how ridiculously stupid the Russian narrative about Ukraine is.
Opposing the fabricated “truth” in Russia is punished says Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Russia sentences opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison. There are more than 400 political prisoners like him in Russia.
Russian man whose daughter made anti-war painting sentenced to two years in prison.
Integrity is absent in Russian leadership.
The concept of compassion is unknown to the Russian leadership. It thinks only about strengthening itself disregarding the welfare and respect of its country.
RUSSIA’S SYSTEMATIC PROGRAM FOR THE RE-EDUCATION & ADOPTION of UKRAINE’S CHILDREN.
The international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children.
Child abductions reveal the genocidal intent behind Putin’s Ukraine invasion
Russian ombudswoman reports about deporting over 700,000 Ukrainian children to Russia
History as an information weapon in Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine
Russia’s new schoolbook aims to justify war on Ukraine
Over 2,400 children have been deported from Ukraine to Belarus (see full Yale report)
The dangerous all-powerful rule of Putin is clearly demonstrated by his many decrees. Here are a few:
Putin signs a decree introducing life sentences for treason.
Putin signs a decree to control two foreign firms’ assets in Russia.
Putin Signs Independence Decrees In Precursor To Seizing Ukrainian Regions.
Putin Signs Decree to Recognize Crimea as Independent.
Putin has removed Russia from the international order.
The greatest threat to Russia is Putin himself.
Putin Is Destroying the Russian State
Threats, insults, and Kremlin ‘robots’: How Russian diplomacy died under Putin
Here is an overview of the WAR CRIMES committed by the Putin-ordered invasion of Ukraine.
It is telling, that Putin – in spite of all his atrocities – is still supported by China.
Below are three videos on Putin.
It is a tragedy that Russia has been dominated by so many ruthless dictators including Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev for a very long period of time. It has led to brainwashing the population to believe that the Western nations are a threat to Russia, which is false. All Europe wants from Russia is peace and cooperation – if at all possible.
NATO was founded to secure peace in Europe by countering the threat posed by the Soviet Union. Now NATO is more necessary than ever to counter the increasingly expansive aggression of Putin.
Europe has absolutely no interest in the Russian territory. Europe just wants to defend its own territory to ensure peaceful progress and development.
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Honorable Mikhail Gorbachev
Of the Russian leaders only Mikhail Gorbachev – famous for his revolutionary reforms on Perestroika (restructuring) and Glasnost (openness) – had a constructive and friendly attitude toward other nations. 
Mikhail Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize for his achievements. On that occasion, he held his Nobel Peace Prize lecture (←click to watch the video of the whole lecture and to read the full text – in English and Russian) where he said these wise words:
“Today, peace means the ascent from simple coexistence to cooperation and common creativity among countries and nations.
Peace is a movement towards the globality and universality of civilization.
Never before has the idea that peace is indivisible been so true as it is now.
Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences.”
Under Gorbachev, the Soviet Union was dissolved. That was no doubt the best that could happen, making nations free to pursue their own course. Sadly the subsequent rulers – in particular Putin – have not had the wisdom of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Gorbachev’s perestroika gave a start to the independent women’s movement in Russia.
Mikhail Gorbachev was ahead of his time. Sadly the Russian establishment and Russian society had not at all advanced enough to really accept his modern ideas and his humanistic and friendly approach. Below is a video presenting views on Mikhail Gorbachev’s legacy.
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Thoughts of Former Kremlin Diplomat Boris Bondarev:
(I urge you to request and read the full report from the link. It reveals a highly dysfunctional Russian leadership and diplomacy that suffer heavily from being in echo chambers hindering comprehension of reality. The following is just a short extract from the final part of the report.)
“Most Russians are in a tricky mental space, brought about by poverty and huge doses of propaganda that sow hatred, fear, and a simultaneous sense of superiority and helplessness.
If the country breaks apart or experiences an economic and political cataclysm, it would push them over the edge.
Russians might unify behind an even more belligerent leader than Putin, provoking a civil war, more outside aggression, or both.
If Ukraine wins and Putin falls, the best thing the West can do isn’t to inflict humiliation. Instead, it’s the opposite: provide support.
This might seem counterintuitive or distasteful, and any aid would have to be heavily conditioned on political reform.
But Russia will need financial help after losing, and by offering substantial funding, the United States and Europe could gain leverage in a post-Putin power struggle.
They could, for example, help one of Russia’s respected economic technocrats become the interim leader, and they could help the country’s democratic forces build power.
Providing aid would also allow the West to avoid repeating its behavior from the 1990s when Russians felt scammed by the United States and would make it easier for the population to finally accept the loss of their empire.
Russia could then create a new foreign policy, carried out by a class of truly professional diplomats.
They could finally do what the current generation of diplomats has been unable to—make Russia a responsible and honest global partner.“
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Chinese Leadership
Here is a video on present-day China.
The recent Chinese peace proposal is fine. If just the first point: “1. Respecting the sovereignty of all countries” had been honored by Putin, the invasion of Ukraine would never have happened.
It is telling that China has police stations across the world to monitor, harass, and in some cases repatriate Chinese citizens living in exile.
Xi Jinping is jealous of the democratic and financial success of Taiwan. Therefore he wants to take Taiwan and convert it to the Chinese model or else destroy it by force. The Chinese leadership should remember that the present state of affairs has occurred for a reason. To change that would be a serious mistake comparable to that of Putin invading and destroying Ukraine.
Below is an interesting video with Eric X. Li. He describes the Chinese system as a meritocracy. However, this will also sooner or later lead to megalomania (delusional godlike infallibility and omnipotence), the echo chamber trap, rigid thinking, and a scarcity of good and constructive ideas.
A very serious weakness in Chinese leadership is the complete absence of women. If women were included in the Chinese leadership the rigid thinking – characteristic of males – would be moderated by more considerate and friendly ideas increasing the stability and welfare of the country. We all long for a better world with peaceful cooperation and common creativity.
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Theocracies
Religious autocracies (theocracies) are particularly hopeless, as some religion is set to rule and justify all the preposterous actions of the leadership.
The problem with most religions (and ideologies for that matter) is that they have been created by men wanting to keep men in control of society.
Some religions explicitly serve to restrain women from outliving their full potential thereby hindering gender equality.
Examples of theocracies are Afghanistan and Iran.
Iran
Below is a video on present-day Iran.
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Afghanistan
Below is a video about present days Afghanistan – especially about women’s rights.
Now women are banned from universities in Afghanistan.
Go to the page on religion-free public space
Here is an excellent article on how to deal with authoritarianism: The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide
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Further references:
Masha Gessen: The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. This book sheds a much-needed light on Putin’s criminal tyranny. It should be read by every Russian. (The first edition appeared 2012)
Report from a former Kremlin insider.
‘Criminal adventure’: Ukraine war fuels Russia’s brain drain.
High-ranking Russian officials are defecting.
Why Echo Chambers Are So Dangerous.
The Danger in the internet echo chamber.
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