Authoritarians in a nutshell

Naïveté and hubris all the way down

Authoritarians will be the death of us all.

Economy? Control it.

Medicine? Control it.

Speech? Control it.

Wealth? Control it.

Truth? Control it.

Why?

At base it’s because they have

(1) a naive understanding of the power of complex emergent systems (economies and social networks),

(2) an impossible hubris about their power to implement their ingenious scheme to make a better world, and

(3) no appreciation for the greatest discovery ever made by civilization: that each individual has inalienable civil liberties, and that these liberties are ESPECIALLY important when there are perceived dangers.