An 8 min audio post by Sam Harris, very much worth a listen.
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/making-sense-with-sam-harris/id733163012?i=1000497002386
This explains much. First though a definition of sanctimony – Righteousness accompanied by an unwarranted attitude of moral or social superiority; smug or hypocritical righteousness.
If your leader can be crass, amoral and not worry about how this projects to others, so can you. If your leader demands nothing, morally and ethically, of himself or you, then you don’t have to demand anything morally or ethically of yourself or the leader. Sounds like the small-a anarchism I have talked about in an earlier post.(1) Hmmm. This begs the question – How do people live together, who makes the rules? A dictator of some kind, of course, with whatever lever works to achieve obedience. Again, might is right, equality under the law vanishes, Constitutions torn up and instantly democracy dies. Hmmm. Short term this may be liberating, but, certainly, at some point, leadership will make demands for obedience and there goes your ‘freedom’ to act and behave as you wish. And if your desires do not correspond to the demands, punishment for not towing the line will be swift and sure.
And the cycle begins anew – Tony Benn, on Democracy …
“Throughout the history of the world the rich and powerful have dominated it and very few people had any control over their own governments. This is the story of the attempt to change that, to win power for the people. It’s the story of a great idea, democracy. And the struggle to make this idea a reality has often been bitter and bloody.
The basis for democracy is the belief that we were all born equal and that equality must be accepted by those in power. Probably the main lessons, if you don’t keep up the pressure for democratic control you lose it. It’s use it or lose it and that is something that people find hard to understand. There is never a final victory for democracy, it’s always a struggle in every generation and you have to take up the cause time and time and time again. And we’ve also learned that those rights can only be won collectively. But in attempts to win those rights many people have been imprisoned and tortured by those who have power and were determined to retain it.”
This whole Trump thing is a thin edge of the wedge, what will come out of it all is anyone’s guess.
——————————
- http://www.allthingsardistan.com.dream.website/2020/06/21/youre-being-had-conspiracy-theory-where-do-we-go-from-here/