Imagine trying to herd cats. Not just a few cats - millions of them. Each cat has its own ideas, desires, and clever ways of doing exactly what it wants while appearing to follow rules. Now imagine thinking you could control all these cats through pure force and fear.
Sounds absurd, right? Yet this is exactly what authoritarian regimes try to do with humans, who are considerably more creative than cats when it comes to resistance.
The Great Authoritarian Fantasy
Every authoritarian rises to power selling the same dream: perfect order, absolute efficiency, trains running on time, and streets free of crime. It's a seductive sales pitch. Who doesn't want a perfectly organized society?
There's just one tiny problem: it's about as realistic as trying to stop the ocean's waves by yelling at them.
Why Humans Are Terrible Authoritarianism Material
Here's the thing about humans: we're messy, creative, and surprisingly stubborn. Tell someone they absolutely cannot do something, and suddenly that's all they can think about doing. Psychology researchers have known this for years - we respond way better to carrots than sticks.
Remember that time you tried to force yourself to follow a super strict diet? How did that work out? Now imagine trying to force an entire country to follow thousands of strict rules. It's diet failure on a national scale.
The Internet: Double-Edged Sword in the Age of Authoritarianism
Remember when we thought the internet would automatically mean the end of authoritarianism? Those were adorably naïve days. The reality turned out more complicated – like giving both the resistance and the empire better weapons.
How The Internet Breaks Authoritarian Control
- During Iran's 2022 protests, teenagers with phones became more powerful than government censors. Every act of repression became a viral video.
- When Shanghai went into harsh lockdown in 2022, residents shared their struggles through WeChat and Weibo faster than censors could delete them. They even invented creative code words to bypass automatic filters.
- Russians use VPNs so much to bypass state media control that they've basically become a national hobby.
- In Belarus, Telegram channels coordinated massive protests that scared Europe's "last dictator" so badly he had to call in help from Russia.
But Wait, There's a Plot Twist
Here's where it gets messy. Authoritarian regimes learned they could fight fire with fire:
- They discovered flooding social media with nonsense works better than censoring truth
- They realized confused people are easier to control than informed ones
- They found out that social media bubbles can actually help separate people
- They learned to weaponize algorithms against their own people
It's like they took the tools of freedom and turned them into sophisticated chaos machines. Why ban information when you can just make people doubt everything?
But here's the thing: even this strategy is failing. Why? Because:
- Young people are getting remarkably good at spotting fake news
- Every government lie that gets exposed damages credibility exponentially
- You can't maintain economic growth when your population doesn't trust any information
- The truth has a funny way of becoming obvious when your toilet paper supply runs out
The Productivity Problem
Here's where it gets really interesting. Authoritarian regimes promise efficiency, but they're actually terrible at getting things done. Why? Because they create societies where:
- Everyone is afraid to report problems
- Innovation is dangerous (what if your new idea makes the boss look bad?)
- The best and brightest often flee
- Resources go to control rather than production
It's like trying to run a restaurant where all the staff are terrified of admitting they dropped a plate. Pretty soon, you're serving food off the floor because nobody dares mention you need new plates.
Greatest Hits of Failed Authoritarian Policies
Let's look at some real-world examples of authoritarian "brilliance" in action:
The Great Leap Backward
China's Great Leap Forward included the brilliant idea of having peasants melt down their cooking pots to increase steel production. The result? Lots of useless metal lumps and a whole lot of people who couldn't cook food. Turns out, you can't actually make industrial steel in your backyard. Who knew?
The Case of the Vanishing Sparrows
Mao decided sparrows were eating too much grain and ordered them eliminated. Turns out, sparrows also eat insects. Without sparrows, insects ate even more grain. It's almost like ecosystems are complex or something.
Soviet Five-Year Plans Greatest Hits
- The shoe factory that only made left shoes to exceed quota
- The nail factory that made giant, unusable nails because they were measured by weight
- The glass factory that made chandeliers so heavy they collapsed ceilings, because weight meant success
Modern Classics
- Venezuela's attempt to fight inflation by making it illegal to report inflation rates
- North Korea's solution to food shortages: promoting a two-meals-a-day campaign as "healthier"
- Turkmenistan's COVID strategy of banning the word "coronavirus"
- Belarus claiming a 80% election victory so absurd it sparked nationwide protests
Why These Failures Happen
The pattern is always the same:
- Leader makes decision based on ideology rather than reality
- Nobody dares point out obvious problems
- Implementation becomes a disaster
- Everyone pretends everything is fine
- Reality becomes impossible to ignore
- Government blames "saboteurs" or "foreign influences"
- Repeat with new bad idea
The Soviet Story: Or Why You Can't Force Prosperity
The Soviet Union tried for decades to prove authoritarianism could outperform democracy. They had:
- Complete control
- Brilliant scientists and engineers
- Vast natural resources
- A population willing to sacrifice
Yet they couldn't keep grocery stores stocked with basic items. Their cars became international jokes. By the 1980s, they were secretly buying grain from their capitalist "enemies" just to feed their people.
The Modern Myth
"But what about [insert current authoritarian regime]?" you might ask. Look closer. The successful ones all had to adopt reforms. The ones that didn't? They're not exactly topping quality-of-life rankings.
North Korea has maximum control and minimum prosperity. China's economic miracle started when they loosened control. It's almost like giving people some freedom helps them be more productive.
Why Authoritarians Need Propaganda
If authoritarianism worked as advertised, it wouldn't need massive propaganda machines. You don't need to convince people gravity exists - they can see it working. But you do need to convince them the emperor's new clothes are fabulous when he's clearly naked.
This is why authoritarian states invest so heavily in controlling narratives. They're not selling reality - they're selling an increasingly expensive illusion.
The Bottom Line
Authoritarianism isn't just morally wrong - it's incompetent. It's the political equivalent of trying to fix a computer by hitting it with a hammer. It promises perfect order and delivers dysfunction. It promises efficiency and creates waste. It promises strength and delivers fragility.
The next time you hear someone praising authoritarian "efficiency," remember: they're not describing reality. They're falling for the oldest political marketing scam in history. The emperor isn't wearing any clothes - and his tailor is charging a fortune for nothing.
What Now?
The best defense against authoritarianism isn't just moral outrage - it's pointing out how hilariously bad it is at its job. Dictators can handle being called evil. They can't handle being called incompetent.
So the next time you encounter authoritarian ideas, don't just get angry. Laugh. Because trying to control millions of human beings through pure force isn't just wrong - it's ridiculous. It's like trying to nail jello to a wall while the jello is posting memes about you.
