“Dare we imagine the nightmarish possibilities if the great experiment in democracy fails?” 

Explanation:

Throughout the vast majority of human history nations have been ruled by small groups of elites, typically headed by monarchs ruling hand in glove with family members, military leaders, and religious institutions. A monarch’s power and privilege was often justified in divine terms, in that they were considered to be gods or they claimed their authority derived directly from God and therefore was not subject to questioning. In Europe for example, the “Divine Right of Kings” doctrine was used for this purpose. Chinese emperors were considered the Sons of Heaven and the absolute rulers of all earthly subjects. Up until the end of World War II the Japanese believed their emperor to be a god in human form, and they regarded themselves to be members of a sacred race that was destined to rule the world.

When America’s Founding Fathers declared “All Men Are Created Equal,” it was a repudiation of divine justification for power. It is the notion that no one is born with special God-given rights to rule over others, that a nation’s citizens should be the ultimate decision makers about who their leaders are and how their government works. This idea was literally a revolutionary break from the past, it represented a huge step forward for humankind, and it is the very foundation of democracy.

Perhaps the most perverse deifications of leaders have occurred in communist and other autocratic countries, a few examples of which include China’s Mao Zedong, the Soviet Union’s Joesph Stalin, and North Korea’s Kim family. (It is supremely ironic that communist dictators in particular have created cult-like religions with themselves at the center, despite that religion and Marxism are supposed to be incompatible with one another.) Deification is one of tools power-obsessed tyrants have used to assert and justify ruthless control over their societies, and they have enforced it through brutality, propaganda, and indoctrination.

If a god could be defined as a being that is all-powerful, all-knowing, immortal, and capable of condemning the unfaithful to eternal damnation, then of course no king, emperor, dictator, nor anyone else has ever been close to being a god. For example, while having absolute control over all aspects of government certainly qualifies as great power, it could not be labeled as “all-powerful,” especially given that more than a few seemingly invulnerable despots have been overthrown in revolutions or otherwise eliminated by rival powers. No dictator in history could be labeled as all-knowing either, since not one has ever been able to read the thoughts of others—which could help explain why vicious paranoia seems proportional to the amount of power one possesses. No autocrat has ever been immortal, and whatever damnation they inflicted upon their political enemies could only last as long as these condemned individuals stayed alive.

A Thought Experiment

Could some combination of developments actually make a tiny godlike class of autocrats a reality for the world’s nations? Let us imagine a set of phases in which such a future actually comes about.

Imagined Phase 1: Democracy dies. Democracies fall domino-style as autocratic political parties worldwide win elections by taking advantage of disgruntled and disillusioned-with-democracy electorates. The tried-and-true tools in this effort are lies, disinformation, and emotion manipulation to order to stoke resentment and culture war conflicts. Once in power, the autocratic regimes clamp down hard on political opponents, journalists, news organizations, and anyone else viewed as nonconformist. They rig elections, the courts, and other government mechanisms to establish a stranglehold that cannot be challenged.

Imagined Phase 2: Pervasive police state. To cater to their vicious addiction to power, the autocrats deploy increasingly sophisticated surveillance technologies—such as ever-present video cameras and spyware on mobile devices—to monitor citizens’ conversations, movements, social interactions, and written communications. The state police immediately crack down on any hints of dissent through intimidation, arrests, torture, and executions.

Imagined Phase 3: Autocrats united. Despotic royal families, dictators, and theocrats form a worldwide alliance that ensures that democracy can never return anywhere, thus permanently eliminating that threat to their hold on power. This Axis of Autocrats implements a NATO-like pact stipulating that “an attack on one is an attack on all”; any attempt to overthrow an autocratic government anywhere will be crushed by internal security forces, assisted by external allies as necessary.

Imagined Phase 4: Ultimate surveillance. One of the privileged groups that serves at the autocrats’ pleasure consists of loyal scientists and engineers; their job is to develop new technologies to ensure the autocrats’ lock on power is unassailable. At the autocrats’ direction they perfect mind-reading technology that is in fact already being developed. Once deployed, citizens are required to wear headgear that sends all thoughts to AI-enabled servers for constant realtime analysis. Headgear is eventually replaced by chips embedded directly into the skull at birth. Any unacceptable thoughts will be dealt with accordingly, and any useful ideas will be hijacked. Privacy is now completely non-existent: the technology-enabled autocrats know all.

Imagined Phase 5: The final step. The autocrats’ scientists carry out the prime directive: develop technology to extend life, using political prisoners as guinea pigs for experiments to do so. Incremental extensions of life are achieved over time, eventually culminating with greatly lengthened, if not unlimited, lifespans. Only two groups are granted access to this life-lengthening treatment: the autocrats themselves, and their political prisoners. Unlimited life for political prisoners is used to inflict “eternal damnation”: never-ending torture, with no hope of death as an escape.

The Caste of Gods

If these five imagined phases were realized, then by the definition of a god given above, a tiny but all-powerful, all-knowing, and virtually immortal caste of autocratic “gods” would in fact become a reality.

But could this imagined future really come to pass? Let us consider the status of the five different phases listed above.

Phase 1: The death of democracy worldwide is the goal that anti-democratic forces, both domestic and international, are working toward. The disturbing fact of the matter is that an increasing number of the world’s countries are already either completely autocratic, like China, North Korea, and Syria, or are electoral autocracies, like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. It is probably just a matter of time before the electoral autocracies abandon any pretense of democracy and instead become completely autocratic as well. Presently the non-autocratic democracies are under multifaceted assaults worldwide, including in America. Power-addicted politicians, zero-principles news organizations, and greedy special interests are sabotaging democracy for self-serving purposes, aided directly or indirectly by external forces. As people worldwide lose faith in democracy due to lack of results and never-ending corruption, the appeal of (falsely) populist, anti-democratic politicians grows. Already we have seen politicians with clear autocratic tendencies winning elections in heretofore democratic countries, such as India, Hungary, and Turkey.

Phase 2: Autocratic regimes are actively working to implement surveillance systems to monitor every aspect of their citizens’ lives. China perhaps is most advanced in this regard, but make no mistake: other regimes in at least 18 countries such as Venezuela and Zimbabwe are already starting to follow China’s example (with China’s assistance), and others will undoubtedly do so in short order. The deployment of a complete and sophisticated surveillance infrastructure will make it impossible for any opposition groups to organize challenges to autocratic regimes. The use of zero-click smartphone spyware currently used to monitor journalists and human rights activists in a variety of countries—including allegedly by democratic ones like Israel and Mexico—could easily be expanded to watch over all citizens.

Phase 3: Autocrats are already uniting in their determination to eliminate any threat to their power. We see China, Russia, North Korea, Syria, Myanmar, Venezuela, Belarus, Nicaragua and many others supporting one another to ensure democracy never prevails within the growing Axis of Autocrats: Russia offering to send troops to Belarus to crush anti-government protests. Cuba helping Venezuela quash dissent. China supporting Myanmar’s brutal military regime. The examples go on and on.

Phase 4: It has already been predicted that mind-reading technology will become a reality at some point in the near future. While the potential benefits are enormous, such as diagnosing mental illnesses for example, so is the potential for gruesome misuse. Does anyone doubt that such mind-reading technology would be quickly adopted by despotic regimes for horrific purposes?

Phase 5: While achieving true immortality currently seems to be an impossibility, incremental increases in lifespans do seem possible. Suppose some significant breakthroughs are eventually achieved and lifespans can be greatly lengthened. Such radical extensions of life would doubtlessly be made exclusively available to the exceedingly powerful—like the autocrats; it is highly doubtful the despots would freely share such technology with others. And would not such technology also be misused in the most awful way imaginable: never-ending punishment on political opponents and other “enemies” of the state? The savagery of tyrants is currently only limited by the life of the victims on whom unspeakable punishment is inflicted; would the North Korean and Syrian dictators for example hesitate to condemn their perceived political enemies to “eternal damnation” if such a possibility became available?

Beyond what is described here, additional inhuman measures that autocrats might adopt could be imagined. Examples include forced addictions starting at birth to keep people forever under the thumb of the regime. Neuroscience advances to eliminate nonessential emotions like love and desire. Mind reading evolving to mind control. The possibilities are endless and terrifying.

Avoiding a Hell-on-Earth Fate

The most effective way to prevent the nightmarish scenario described here from coming to pass is to strengthen democracy—starting with our own country. We must not allow the world to go back to an age when a small group of deified elites ruled the world’s nations, especially because sophisticated technology can now be used to permanently prevent any challenge to their power. By setting a powerful example of freedom and prosperity let us start rolling back the autocratic tide that is now threatening to sweep the world. Through a robust and thriving democracy let us ensure that the insatiable greed of a tiny few does not lead to the permanent and brutal subjugation of the many.