The Democracy of the Mob
By Franklin H. Littell
[Dr. Littell, a Methodist minister, college professor, Holocaust expert, scholar, historian, and world citizen, is a frequent contributor to this journal.]
A current full-page advertisement in The New York Times heralds the dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, as "the Lodestar for Sailing the 21st Century." Son of the previous dictator, Kim Il Sung, he is praised (in the PR) for many virtues:
- He is a "a man of great leadership, remarkable wisdom and noble virtues."
- He is "always with the popular masses, sharing the ups and downs of life with them."
- He is "equipped with all the qualities a great leader needs."
- His Credo: "I admire the people as a great mentor."
In sum, Kim Jong Il joins the god-men of the 20th century (today called "dictators") who are said to embody in their persons the will of the masses.
At the level of political science, the phenomenon is part of the general picture of "Illiberal Democracy"-brilliantly discussed by Foreed Zakaria in the current issue of Foreign Affairs. Since the French Revolution, since the emergence of "modernity," the teaching and practice of popular sovereignty and respect for the rights of the citizen-once tightly bonded to each other-have in many places gone separate ways. We can no longer take it for granted that popular government will with devotion and self-restraint protect the liberty, dignity, and integrity of the dissenter and loyal opposition.
To be sure, every 20th century despot or dictator has found it necessary to claim to represent "the will of the people," even as he trampled on their lives, dignities, and liberties. And all too frequently the majority victimized by the tyrant has taken the easy way out, blaming some targeted and defenseless minority for their woes-rather than confronting the tyrant`s corruption and abuse of power. This was the road taken in the Turkish genocide of the Armenians and the Nazi genocide of the Jews.
In the last decade gypsy (Rom) communities in Central Europe, especially in Translyvania and Moldavia, have been subjected to a series of assaults: murders, burnings, evictions, and expulsions. The authorities not only fail to protect the victims: they justify the mob violence by appeal to majority rule, "The will of the people," and the national "Right to self-determination."
Apart from the apotheosis of the god-man, the Fuhrer, the Noble Leader-which no person of Biblical training and commitment can affirm, a basic misunderstanding of democracy and republican principles is the root error. The true understanding of popular sovereignty ("the will of the people") is based on the awareness that sound public opinion requires the full, free, and uninhibited discussion of public events and political policy. Without that forum for hammering out civic decision, no decision is truly "democratic." That is why the apparent unanimity of opinion in support of tyrants is meaningless: the mob is fickle and its opinions brittle, especially when forced to honor the facade of popular support that the despot or dictator yearns for.
From the apparent power of the brutal Stalinist regime of East Germany to its collapse and the political incorporation of its states into the Federal Republic of Germany was but a matter of months. From the world-shaking and awesome threat of Soviet hegemony to the collapse of "the wall" and the devolution of the USSR into the confederated states of the CIS was but a matter of months.
The only viable government in the long run is that which gives equal attention to "the will of the people" and their basic human rights-including freedom of religion, freedom of speech and press, freedom of assembly and petition. A "democratic" regime that breaks from that tandem may bring misery to two or even three generations-all in the name of some god-man, some idol. But those who recall Stalin of the USSR and Hitler of the German Third Reich know already what the end of Kim Jon Il of North Korea will be: the Lord will grow tired of him.
