Based on the Freedom House ‘Not Free’ classification, and on the Worldometer population statistics, 3 billion people in the world are now under the jackboot of a variety of brutal regimes – dictatorships, theocracies, ideologies, one party states, absolute monarchies, warlords, gangsters and sadists. A horrifying situation for far too many people.

As an observation on world culture, the enclosed document serves to codify the common threads of these regimes. By no means a definitive statement, it attempts to shed light on the nature and workings of Authoritarian Culture. With modern Governments now having unprecedented means of oppression at their disposal, one needs to be absolutely clear as to the extent of what is happening. Three points : 

1. Your Way / Our Way – for those States that argue that Liberty is not appropriate for their cultures, the bad news is that the desire for Liberation is Eternal and Universal - whether it be the Oriental notions of personal spiritual liberation, the Western philosophy of Human Rights, or the ‘Freedom or Death’ wars of self-determination and independence. The evidence for this is the extraordinary and enormous lengths that Authoritarian regimes have to go to, to prevent people being free. Massive state departments and security forces with the sole purpose of absolute control over their populations – that is how powerful the force of Liberation is, that is what they have to do to try and contain it. The State apparatus to control Liberty is the mirror image of the power of Liberation. It is an unwinnable war against human nature. The evidence for this is the vast amounts of energy expended to maintain their State control systems and the endless ‘civil war crimes' that they need to commit to oppress their populations. 

2. Potentosis Virulans / Power Narcosis – every time a regime or a leader commits an abomination and their leaders or apparatchiks strut on the world stage in breast beating defiance of Democratic values, far from proving that ‘Power Is Great’, they are in fact proving precisely the opposite point. That is exactly why we have the Separation of Powers, exactly why the power of Governments has to be limited and controlled and accountable to its citizens. With every oppression, every brutality, they strengthen the case against themselves. 

Of all the addictions – alcohol, drugs, food, sex, gambling, violence etc – as witnessed on numerous occasions where leaders would rather rule over rubble than not rule at all, it is clear that addiction to power is the most destructive. Nothing scopes the fear of losing power better than what happened to Margaret Thatcher : ‘One day she was a world leader, the next day she had an empty diary’. And that the only way one attains power is either by eliminating those already in power, or eliminating those who seek power themselves. Does the UN need to set up a ‘Dictator Rehab’ facility? Warlords Anonymous? The first task being to admit to themselves that they have an addiction problem. 

3. Advocacy & Enforcement – in most cases, the regimes cannot enforce their methods without control of the armed forces, the police, the judiciary and the secret security services. As the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court are both limited by the veto power of the UN Security Council, the question arises whether they should both demerge from the UN system and reconstitute themselves, lock, stock and barrel under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The objective being to make Generals, Police Chiefs, Judges and State Security Heads criminally responsible for their ‘crimes against humanity’ that they may commit on behalf of their regimes, that obeying orders is no excuse. And that there be a campaign of advocacy to make sure that persons in such positions are made fully aware of their responsibilities, that they can no longer hide behind the politicians. That when implementing brutal policies that are blatantly and solely designed to keep a regime and its leaders clinging to power, they are continually reminded of the limits of their powers and the consequences of their actions.