by Sanford Baran
We find ourselves living in interesting times! Who wants to be bored anyway?
On the one hand we may think that current circumstances are totally unprecedented, what with concerns about executive overreach, questions about constitutional boundaries, the routine breaking of governmental norms and unbridled bullying on the international stage. Yet history offers us perspective: down through the ages it’s estimated that there have been thousands of individuals who have assumed the mantle of tyranny. They’ve been kings and emperors, military dictators, elected officials who gradually seized more power, revolutionary leaders who betrayed their ideals, and party secretaries who ruled through fear. The ancient Greeks coined the term “tyrant” over 2,500 years ago, and every generation since has witnessed struggles with humanly devised systems of power, authority, and governance.
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