“What Difference, At This Point, Does It Make?”

Last evening my wife and I watched a docu-drama on the life of Catherine the Great of Russia. (1)  Towards the conclusion, Catherine moves to block the coronation of her husband Peter, and engineer her own ascent to the throne.

Catherine chose to claim the throne and rule; to replace Peter by threat of force (uprising) and eventually via deadly force (murder by proxy).

I was struck by the timelessness of the struggle for power and the brutal use of force.  With little effort I (or we) could list political leaders out of modern history who ascended to power and behaved as follows (2):

• Rules by decree, via an Enabling Act or similar laws passed by a legislature allowing him to do so;
• is an absolute ruler of a sovereign state, usually appointed, but without hereditary ascension;
• governs outside the otherwise accepted rule of law;
• commonly (but not necessarily) gaining power through fraud, a coup d’état, resorting to either again to continue in power;
• may develop a cult of personality;
• may be autocratic, oppressive, despotic or tyrannical.

The list would include all the familiar and unfamiliar tyrants, dictators and despots of the last 500 years.  We might argue over the degree to which each ‘nominee’ satisfied these criteria.

In so doing we would debate the inclusion or exclusion of nearly every one our US presidents.  Our disagreements would be over degree; and whether the intent of each of the various tyrannical actions was benevolent or malicious.

We would judge the actions of the current president and his administration by the same criteria we use to criticize other despotic governments.

That observation brought me to the comment made by Hillary Clinton at a Senate committee hearing on the terrorist attack at the US Consulate in Benghazi:

“What Difference, At This Point, Does It Make?”

If the only difference between our current government and historical examples of tyranny and despotism are nuances of degree, then our revered example of ‘best practice’ is only the lesser among a field of evils.

Conventional wisdom dictates I prefer the ‘lesser evil’ of George Bush, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton to Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler or Saddam Hussein.

What difference, at this point, does the form of government or the incumbent head of State make, if we remain subjects ruled by a State ?

We embrace a Constitution that has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it (L.Spooner).

We have traded individual liberty for the promise of protection and some meager benefits from a welfare-State.

What difference, at this point, does it make …

… as long as we are willing to submit ?

“The State is the coldest of all cold monsters.  
Coldly it lies, too;
and this lie creeps from its mouth:
‘I. The State. Am The People.’ …
Everything about it is false;
it bites with stolen teeth.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

Lysander Spooner

(1) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103311 (movie reference corrected from original post)
(2) http://conservapedia.com/List_of_dictators

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