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I am a student of history, words, and philosophy because history is a great teacher, words mean things, and ideas have consequences.
Take, for example, the word “Demagogue.”
According to Wikipedia, this word means a “Political orator who panders to the audiences’ fears and emotions; a rabble-rouser; a leader in a democracy who gains popularity by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among the common people, whipping up the passions of the crowd and shutting down reasoned deliberation. Demagogues have usually advocated immediate, violent action to address a national crisis while accusing moderate and thoughtful opponents of weakness or disloyalty. Demagogues overturn established customs of political conduct, or promise or threaten to do so. Most who were elected to high office changed their democracy into some form of managed democracy.
Demagogues have appeared in democracies since ancient Athens. They exploit a fundamental weakness in democracy: because ultimate power is held by the people, nothing stops the people from giving that power to someone who appeals to the lowest common denominator of a large segment of the population.
Methods of demagogues include:
- scapegoating
- fear mongering
- lying
- emotional oratory and personal charisma
- accusing opponents of weakness and disloyalty
- promising the impossible
- violence and physical intimidation
- personal insults and ridicule
- vulgarity and outrageous behavior
- folksy posturing
- gross oversimplification
- attacking the news media”
(Special thanks to Lisa Goodwin for bringing this Wikipedia article to my attention.)
The old adage is true, “Those who do not know history are bound to repeat it.”
As is the saying, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is a duck.”
Unfortunately, human nature craves security more than freedom. We see this with the children of Israel in the wilderness (“let’s go back to being slaves in Egypt, at least we had garlic and leeks”), to the shattered ruins of the Weimar Republic in 1933 (“Let’s vote for this Hitler guy. Yes, he has some crazy ideas, but at least he will make us strong and powerful again.“) Thankfully Moses led the crowd beyond the voice of the mob into the promised land of freedom.
Demagogues promise security but always deliver tyranny while liberty dies to the shouts of the mob convinced of their own righteousness. History teaches this: I hope we learn this lesson soon because ideas have consequences.
Debbie and I serve as the FMI Global Associate Director for MENACA and Europe. We focus on cultivating disciples, leaders, and church planting movements.
