The Impatient Tyrant

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The tyrant and the extremist are usually very impatient with the democratic process of discussion, negotiation and compromise that distinguishes Western democracies. Disagreements are seen as betrayals, protests as insurrections, dissent as sedition, and the accommodation of different points of view as a waste of precious time. Thus they seek to speed up the process by decree, violence, or by the silencing of their opposition. Lastly, tyrants generally believe they know the “best way” to live life and to govern a nation, and waste no time in such niceties as freedom of speech or freedom of religion.

All Is Vanity…and there is nothing new under the sun.
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1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3 What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.
7 All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.
8 All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things[e] yet to be
among those who come after.