Saturday, December 10, 2016

The Paradox of Dictators: They Always Claim Majority Support - Bergoglio is No Exception

Failure

If you think about it, it's sort of a paradox. Dictators almost always claim the support of the majority, usually the vast majority.

I suppose on occasion they have it. Often they don't. But they all go to significant lengths to make people think they have it, which often means they have to lie about it.

Yet they're dictators, and presumably they have the institutional support - the military, the secret police and so on - in place to remain dictators. So you might imagine that once in a while some dictator somewhere would say, "I admit that the people don't support me on this one, but you know what, continuing the revolution (or whatever) is just the right thing to do. Political morality isn't a numbers game, you know."

It never happens.

Weirdly, it does sometimes happen among democratically elected leaders. Obviously, leaders in democracies like having democratic support, especially around election time, but they sometimes take pride in doing the right thing for the sake of it and will often cite incidents of this to tout their leadership abilities or independence or whatever.

People often say that the leader of the Catholic Church is in essence a dictator. He can create advisory committees or call synods to ask for advice but can then (perfectly within his rights) ignore their recommendations. He can choose whichever new cardinals he wants, change canon law on his own initiative and so on and so forth.

But I think it's more accurate to call him a limited or constitutional-monarch, at least if we have to use the conventional categories. But in this case the limited part of it isn't, say, a parliament but rather the in large part written "constitution" of the Old and New Testaments, the decisions and claims of past popes and councils, the interpretations of the Church fathers, the arguments of recognized doctors of the Church and so on.

It's notable that Jorge Mario Bergoglio has "governed" more as a revolutionary dictator - claiming the support of the masses - than as a constitutional monarch. It's true that he and his allies have sometimes claimed the support of the Holy Spirit. That's sort of an extra attempt to enlist the support of those Catholics who still believe in the real existence of that entity - which perhaps does not include Bergoglio and many of his allies.

But the main theme is: we have the support of the vast majority of Catholics. Those who oppose us are a small minority of reactionaries, rigid conservatives and the like. They're old, they're dying out. We are the future.

As is the case with many revolutionary dictatorships, the claim may at first seem true or at least mainly true, even to outsiders.

But then someone pokes the bubble, or draws attention to the fact that beneath the surface all may not be what it seems.

See yesterday's interview with the journalist Edward Pentin.

And then it all comes crashing down.

In the last few days, Bergoglio and his men have implied that his agenda to admit unrepentant adulterers to communion received two-thirds support at the Second Synod on the Family.

That is an easily-verified lie.

Even after Bergoglio packed the vote with sycophants and cronies, and heavy-handedly manipulated the process from start to finish, that particular element of the agenda was officially rejected.

As I argued a few days ago, this sort of thing may be a sign of desperation.

Another interesting thing about dictators is that they're almost always paranoid. Their ongoing attempts to root out and eliminate opposition are not mere exercises in, say, sadism but actions initiated out of fear. In fairness, dictators are often successful because of this. Paranoia is often a kind of Machiavellian virtue. For dictators, at least, it beats complacency.

Bergoglio believes (we know this because he has told us) that he is up against a vast-right wing conspiracy to defeat his agenda. It includes powerful members of the media along with independent "cyberhackers" trolling the Pope with "fake news" from their basements.

The conspiracy includes retreads from the old-regime, as well as reactionary Latin scholars. 

But the people are with him (so he claims). All power resides in the masses.

At this point what should have happened was a raised-fist speech from a balcony (along with the obligatory secret-police sweep).

Instead the papal caudillo publicly revealed himself to be a disgusting pervert.

Bad move.

Bergoglio is a Peronist or perhaps a Castro-wannabe.

Give them their due. Peron lasted 22 years (on and off), Castro lasted 57. 

Bergoglio hasn't even lasted 4.

Can you think of any self-respecting (and historically notable) dictator who only lasted that long?

Even on his terms, Bergoglio is an inept and pathetic failure. And so are his men.

How sad.

9 comments:

  1. he cannot say the masses are with him. At least in his own country the bubble has exploded and if you visit the main newspapers you'll see that most people commenting are tired of his cr*p. At the beginning comments were moderated, most were deleted, but now there are so many that newspapers just leave them there for everyone to read. People see him as peronist, communist, friend of the worldy, corrupt and sly.

    The only ones that keep defending him are the lukewarm inside churches, the old women who think that since he's the pope he must be right, and promote his intentions and buy his cr*p, have changed their own faith to defend ecumenism, the acceptance of homosexuals and divorced to the Holy Communion, and help cover the priest's naughty private life.

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  2. I think his wiggle-room is in the phrase 'majority support'. He had over half (simple majority) of the hand-picked room (though not the two-thirds necessary). It's a very Clintonesque way of speaking, ("that depends on what the meaning of 'is' is") which tells you everything you need to know about the sad, corrupt, perverted man.

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    1. Yes, although I think both the Pope and others (such as Cupich) have recently used "two-thirds majority" and "approved" (which you needed a two-thirds majority for) when referring to the communion issue.

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  3. This is all good. Hopefully, the MSM seeking a fresh story, will pick up on all of this, i.e, how the poor Pope is under siege from some of the same folks who elected Trump. This should be helped especially if priests are forced by the Pope to preach on climate change as Drudge has reported.

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  4. Read Sandro Magister's article in Chiesa today about the Pope's vision of himself as a radical leftwing leader of the "people," and a lot of this will fall into place. Some of his Marxist friends have been talking about a system that is both "communist and papist;" in other words, he will acquire the position of world dictator on all levels. Don't forget that the Marxists also always attacked marriage and sexual morality first, as a way of undermining and destroying the personal sphere and putting the individual entirely at the service of the state.

    I think he's not going to answer the dubia, lie as much as he wants about support, and simply move on to the next phase because he has already accomplished his first objective: weakening and sowing doubts about the teachings of the Church on marriage and sin and destroying the concept of conscience and free will. Actually, he's accomplished another objective: proving that the bishops are weak and too confused and scared of him to do anything to even slow his program, much less stop it.

    Next is the enforcement of Laudato Si, which is his game plan to substitute a Marxist-eco "earth religion" for Christianity.

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    1. Thanks, I will look for the Magister article.

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    2. Thanks Elizabeth for reference and perceptive comments. Why more Catholics, especially Bishops and priests don't get this is a sign of widespread moral corruption in the Church: loss of faith, lack of courage, self indulgence.

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  5. Michael D, it is a sign that so many have been 'infected' by the modern idea that we need to be understanding & patient, all the while our home is burning around us. People need to be woken, but I think it will take a loud blast of a trumpet such as Jericho, or louder....

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