from past to present
Throughout history, humans have been aiming for one thing. Power. Whether to place their names in history or to look down on others. It is something that has been strived for since the beginning of time. To attain the power they desire they either used force or simply tricked others by getting into their hearts. Reading through this blog you will see examples of how some aspect of tyranny was used and helped people gain the power they so craved from past to present.
like an infectious disease, tyranny was birthed from within the body, in this case, the body being those in power. The ones in power at the time were members of an oligarchic group, a form of government that has power over their state. These groups were filled with those that were either nobility, wealthy, educational, religious, political, or had military control. During the “age of tyrants” which lasted from around 670-500BC, the oligarchic rule was slowly disintegrating into nothingness due to the rise of tyrants. One of these celebrities who started the trend was Cypselus who was later known as Cypselus of Corinth. Due to his mother, a member of the Bacchiad clan, marrying into another clan, young Cypselus wasn't very liked by his clansmen and was at times being marginalized within the clan. Before becoming a tyrant Cypselus held the title of polemarch meaning military commander in Corinth. With him already being well known he began to gain power but not from the ones above but instead of those below. Through demagoguery, he gained power and reputation amongst the common people and was more liked than the other members of the oligarchic group. He later used his status as a polemarch to force his enemies out as well as started trading with others which made Corinth flourish. This is how he grew in power and became known as Cypselus of Corinth.
Although many years, decades and centuries have passed, many of the Greek's inventions and ideas still live till this day that of course includes tyranny. The method of gaining power through the mass of common people through emotions and promises has not changed. The most notable country for taking a page right from chapter one in gaining power is none other than America, also known as the land of the free. Like a true Greek tyrant, the politician in power struck the heart of many voters and caused one of the greatest scams in history. That of course is student debt. During the sixties as a politician, your career rides on the number of votes you can gain just as it does today. You needed to find something fast to garner votes before your competition did. This train of thought led to student loans. During the sixties a war was ending, a war that is now known as the Vietnam war. The average age of the soldiers that participated were twenty. This later led to a debate. If kids were forced to go to war at such a young age shouldn't it be alright for them to vote? This led to the twenty-sixth amendment, “The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.”(1). With new voters coming in, politicians were not the only ones who saw this as a win. Although politicians used this to their advantage so did the banks. After weighing all the options in hand they too suddenly felt like helping the youth. At the time no one wanted to loan thousands of dollars to a teenager when they had no money, no job, no assets, no credit. That would be an atrocious business decision. Think about it. Would you lend that much of your own money to a stranger? The answer is no unless of course, you are a saint that just so happens to have a million dollars. But to the average person, us common folks, they would just laugh at how stupid of a question it was and leave. Due to this many banks declined students when asked for a loan until the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program came to be. The Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program guarantees the loan and if not paid back to the bank the government will pay for it. Many teenagers saw this as a chance to no longer work hourly just to get an education and this was what politicians aimed for. Politicians used this to their leverage to rail in a new mass of voters to gain power.
Although many other countries besides America use these tactics to rise in power that doesn't mean it's the only way. One known country that doesn't follow this pattern is China. China has been in many controversies in the past year for its non-democracy and racist actions. The first one being the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Many protesters died and were killed by their government for wanting the corruption of the Communist Party to end.
Most citizens at the time noticed that the control of the economy was working badly and they were the ones suffering from it.
(Tank Man) Stoping Advances of a column of tanks on June 5, 1989, in Beijing. After this incident he was never seen again. Picture was taken by Jeff Widener.
Next is the credit system. In China, citizens are being monitored by the government through face recognition AI(artificial intelligence) security cameras placed everywhere and having their every move watched. They are then given a score which affects them financially depending on what they have been doing. The Blitzchung controversy. In October 2019, pro hearthstone player Ng Wai Chung(Blitzchung) was banned and lost all his prize money for supporting the Hong Kong protesters In a tournament. Soon after Daryl Morey angered china with his pro hong kong tweet and was forced to delete it by the NBA due to fear of losing one of their huge supporters.
My own screenshot of the now deleted tweet
Blitzchung supporting Hong Kong by saying"Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our time." Later getting banned from future tournament and losing his prize money
A month later more statements about the Uighur Muslim concentration camp surfaced and how the Chinese government mistreats and abuses them and how the United Nations (UN) seem to be doing nothing about it. And finally the latest one, Covid-19. Due to withholding information by forcing the media to not talk about it, censoring certain videos, tweets, forums, doctors and reporters as well as having a few members of the World Health Organization(WHO) not allowing Taiwans membership when having some information about the virus , the virus spread all around the world.
World Health Organization(WHO) official dodging question about Taiwan
This caused many financial problems for families and small businesses causing them to nearly go bankrupt. When questioned the Chinese government pushed the blame to other countries and even called it racist when gaining attention which was quite ironic seeing as how they blamed Africans(black Africans) and even forced them to sleep on the streets as well as not allowing them in any buildings.
Africans in Guangzhou, China, thrown out of hotels due to rumors believing it came from Africans(With no proof)
China was able to get away with this due to its control over establishments, control of information and rise of power in the economy. In the past few decades, Chinese companies such as Tencent have become huge shareholders in nearly every company and essentially having the last say on whether a product can be released in China. This leads to companies having to listen to their demands as well as China rising in power on the global scale beyond any other country.
Bibliography
Pomeroy,Sarah B, Burstein, Stanley M. ,Donlan, Walter , Roberts, Jennifer Tolbert ,Tandy, David W. , and Tsouvala Georgia. "The Archaic Age Tyrants" in A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture. Oxford University Press, April 2019.
Nancy, Turner"The History of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment" in THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS: HOW THE TWENTY-SIXTH AMENDMENT COULD PLAY A ROLE IN THE CURRENT DEBATE OVER VOTING LAWS. American University Law Review,2015
(1)"The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age." Benson, Jocelyn and T. Morley Michael."The Twenty-Sixth Amendment"https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/interpretation/amendment-xxvi/interps/161
Smole, David P.Federal Student Loans Made Under the Federal Family Education Loan Program and the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program: Terms and Conditions for Borrowers, report,June 7, 2013; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc822010/: accessed December 7, 2020), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.
Hubbert, Jennifer. “Appropriating Iconicity: Why Tank Man Still Matters.” Visual Anthropology Review 30, no. 2 (November 1, 2014): 114–26. doi:10.1111/var.12042.
Nathan, Andrew J. “The Tiananmen Papers.” Foreign Affairs 80, no. 1 (January 1, 2001): 2–48. doi:10.2307/20050041.
Lee, Claire Seungeun."Cyberspace, datafication and dataveillance in China: from IT-backed authoritarianism to data-driven authoritarianism"Datafication, dataveillance, and the social credit system as China’s new normal, VOL 43 ,Issue 6(2019)
Crete-Nishihata Masashi, Dalek Jakub, Knokkel Jeffery, Lawford Nicola, Wesley Caroline and Zhou Mari."COVID-19 Outbreaks in China and COVID-19 Goes Global" Censored Contagion II. University of Toronto. https://citizenlab.ca/2020/08/censored-contagion-ii-a-timeline-of-information-control-on-chinese-social-media-during-covid-19/
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