Nice Guys Don't Rule // When Rulers Err

[RJnAbbysNana]

When Rulers Err

by Michael S. Rozeff
January 19, 2006


If the Cuban Missile Crisis had gone the wrong way, hydrogen bombs might have blanketed the world.

The higher-ups or rulers who have power produce the big crises and wars. Their subjects, few of whom benefit from them, do not. The masses are not irrelevant, but their impact on major events is secondary. The Iranian people are not making the decisions about nuclear power. They are not issuing threats, and neither are the American and European peoples.

Rulers are men accustomed to gaining and using power. This implies they possess an above average dose of certain characteristics. Benign philosopher-kings don’t become rulers. Those who rule tend to be overly aggressive, rapacious, hard-nosed, opportunistic, pragmatic, cruel, violent, and manipulative. Even if these tendencies are not abundantly present, their power allows freer reign to their worse instincts. Rulers are hawks, not doves. Their number includes more than its share of troublemakers.

Rulers talk to and make deals with other rulers. They aim to maintain and boost their positions by exchanges that give them advantages. These interactions are complex and often for high stakes. Rulers often gamble the lives and fortunes of the peoples they rule.

The interactions of the rulers we call plots or schemes or intrigues. Their key feature is that the rulers are involved in machinations and maneuvering, circumvention and outwitting, scheming and craftiness, cunning and jockeying. They delight in the exercise of these wiles. They enjoy scheming. Their dealings are not like sports contests because a ruler can collaborate with other rulers, make side deals, break rules, lie, double-cross and cheat. They can foment revolutions, stimulate unrest, and assassinate. They have a large bag of tricks. The pacts, treaties and alliances they make are quite a bit less random than kaleidoscopes but quite a bit more changeable than contests with fixed rules.

International relations are the opposite of a sports contest. A boxing match has two well-matched opponents fighting by clear rules in the open until the final bell rings. International relations involve shifting alliances, deceptions, bluffs and counter-bluffs, traps, spying, image, threats and counter-threats, feints and thrusts. It’s far more complex.

cont..........

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff61.html