I am rather surprised though I shouldn’t be, at statements about tyrants and leaders generally ‘losing their grip on reality’ when they are faced revolts of any colour and kind. This was said today about Syria and I wonder exactly what it is supposed to mean. I am guessing it means that when a leader’s population want them to go and they don’t they have somehow lost their sense of reality. It is interesting to note how many democratic thinkers think revolution so much closer to reality than tyranny.
Of course the ‘reality’ is that tyrants are living in a very real world just as those revolting against them are, neither has lost anything. If you lined up an army against a tyrant they are never going to walk away but look for their own army; that is after all the human response to all adversity – what can you bring to support and strengthen your own position.
The ‘reality’ behind this sentiment seems to be that the march of democracy is overtaking tyrannies everywhere and the tyrants have not realized that yet, but they have. Very much so. That’s why they tyrannize because they have always known they could not rule in any other way. The weakness of the sentiment is that somehow the writer knows more about the world than the tyrants.
As of course we all do from our comfortable, Christmas laden homes.