Does tyranny stem from too much democracy?

[DetlefK]

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/america-tyranny-donald-trump.html#
(very long article)

Plato made that argument and I will try to make a similar one.





Imagine a population with democracy and lots of freedom and tolerance.

Life is good. There are few problems and so many ways to choose from how to live your life.

Actually, there are so few problems, that people start complaining about minor and inconsequential things, e.g. what your genetic ancestry says about you as a person.

People have forgotten what life was like WITH problems such as insufficient freedom and insufficient tolerance. So, now they turn their attention to First-World-Problems, e.g. women and doctors daring to make medical decisions about women without input from male non-doctors.

In this climate, a demagogue comes. He rallies the people to combat the perceived problems.

While combatting the perceived problems, the people forget to preserve the freedoms they had fought for in the past.

The people have taken their freedoms for granted and they have forgotten that these freedoms even exist and could be lost again.

With the demagogue's aid, the people got rid of the perceived problem, but they accidently brought back real problems.






What if tyranny gets born from laziness?

What if tyranny gets born from people taking for granted what they have or have been given by their ancestors?

It's easy to prejudge other people if you have never suffered from prejudice.
It's easy to demand less rights for other people if you have never had your rights taken away.
It's easy to give up privacy if you are unaware that you do have privacy.
It's easy to join the demagogue in his fight against perceived tyranny if you have never experienced actual tyranny.