Democratic countries will inevitably become authoritarian/totalitarian

[Grimes]

This theory has been going around my head for a while now, and the recent terror attacks on Sydney and Paris (among other places) has brought it into light. The theory is: Governments will eventually have to pass more and more legislation to protect us against terrorism and other perceived threats. Much of this legislation will restrict our human rights, for our own safety (eg: NSA, CIA Black sites, etc). Eventually it will reach a point where it only takes one corrupt dickhead to gain absolute power, assuming he can win over the armies to his side.

 

Of course it would take decades if not centuries to reach this point, but personally, i think it's only a matter of time.

 

 

What do you guys think? I'm pretty much just writing my thoughts down, not backed by any research or anything like it. I could be totally wrong.

[Jacobmeister]

Seems like it's heading that way... I don't really see how else it'll end up, tbh.

[Tats]

Invert the cause and the consequence.

 

How to restrict rights while saying it's for your own safety ? Plan some attacks and raise fear. This is known as chaos theory.

[Heated Bread]

This theory has been going around my head for a while now, and the recent terror attacks on Sydney and Paris (among other places) has brought it into light. The theory is: Governments will eventually have to pass more and more legislation to protect us against terrorism and other perceived threats. Much of this legislation will restrict our human rights, for our own safety (eg: NSA, CIA Black sites, etc). Eventually it will reach a point where it only takes one corrupt dickhead to gain absolute power, assuming he can win over the armies to his side.

 

Of course it would take decades if not centuries to reach this point, but personally, i think it's only a matter of time.

 

 

What do you guys think? I'm pretty much just writing my thoughts down, not backed by any research or anything like it. I could be totally wrong.

 

Congratulations.  You've just realized the same fear that many Americans had after 9/11, but who were mocked and lumped into the same category as crackpot conspiracy theorists.

[TheTruth]

A terrorist attack ALWAYS accomplishes its goals in one of two ways:

 

1) It brings down a democracy via explosions

2) It causes widespread fear, panic and paranoia which leads to civil liberties being curtailed, which also brings down a democracy. 

[F CHARLIE]

Invert the cause and the consequence.

 

How to restrict rights while saying it's for your own safety ? Plan some attacks and raise fear. This is known as chaos theory.

This is not what chaos theory is. What you are saying is more akin to conspiracy theory.

 

@Heated Bread

This is one component of how it happens but I do think that an "authoritarian" government is the "default" type of government historically. A liberal democracy is the rarity that has now become common but is still not the "natural" state of being. Look at corporations. They are authoritarian as a default but they function much better when all of its employees take "ownership" of thier work, take pride in thier work, have passion for what they do etc. That is generally not accomplished in an authoritarian system (there are some systems where authoritarian is the best culture, military for example).

[Peanuts]

This could happen, but ONLY IF voters allow their governments to continue passing more and more of this legislation, which in my opinion is pretty unlikely

[F CHARLIE]

This could happen, but ONLY IF voters allow their governments to continue passing more and more of this legislation, which in my opinion is pretty unlikely

People don't vote FOR authoritarianism, they vote for physical security, financial security, border security, security of tradition. These concepts are counter to librilization/freedom.

[Splat]

The world moves like a sawtooth. We go around and around in a circle, slowly moving to a crescendo and then -- as quick as it came -- a drop. Up and down. We can intervene, but inevitably our hands are cut off.

[Grimes]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/06/top-un-official-says-global-war-terror-laying-waste-human-rights? 

 

so relevant right now

[Keroro1454]

Well conversely, we never truly lived in this capitalist-liberal ideology. While that is perpetuated as what American society (Working off solely America here) has been, that really was never the case. We've always existed in a in-between of progressive ideals. So while it is true that some right may be shrunk, that is only partially terrorisms fault. The other part is simply the fact of technology. The government will not turn a blind eye to its abilities with surveillance because some people are angry. The fact of the matter is, with technology advancements we need to establish what we can really expect to be a common right/privacy etc.