Do you wonder, by the way, why "Tyranny and democracy" and not the other way around? Well, we've done this before and I for one ain't gonna repeat myself. Just bear in mind that I don't choose my titles on a whim.
In pondering the relationship between these two items, we must first and foremost keep in mind that each of them is in its own right an empty signifier; that is, both "absolute rule" and "rule of the people" are vague or otherwise general enough that discussion outside a well-delimited context is meaningless. At this point, the reader and I might as well go our separate ways and I could very damn well close the blog, for what is the journal other than a largely futile attempt to reach a common understanding... and yet let's make that effort, in the hope that it at least gets us somewhere rather than nowhere.
Anyways, in pondering the two items under scrutiny from a contextual perspective, some may be tempted towards anachronistic portrayals, while others may pull facile examples out of their hats. I am deliberately omitting the obvious case of DPRK, on which we will readily agree with respect to tyranny, but which will leave you shaking your head in disbelief when I mention democracy. Had you read the fucking lesson, then maybe you'd understand what I'm talking about; but as things currently stand, we're going to have to look for some more relatable context.
In looking further, I for one am willing to go as late as early 2021, since I still recall it quite clearly and since now is too recent a moment to be considered history; while at the same time I'll go no earlier than 2016, given that a whole boatload of things have changed since then and going further into the past will only bring more questions which by now may as well remain mysteries. So for our amusement, let us take the so-called "Russian collusion" for example. In doing this, let's leave aside the gargle in the press and attempt to use reason. The table contains precisely one set comprising two options: either Donald Trump colluded; or he didn't -- I hope you realize that there's no mid-way between the two, no "he put just the tip in", no "spectrum", no special interpretation which'd magically allow us to ignore the possibilities as they stand before us. Of course things are more complicated than that, but either way: collusion happened or it did not happen.
So then, if he did collude, then all the whining was legitimate: Trump broke the system by influencing the election on Twitter, or whatevers. He used the "Russian collusion machine" to gain absolute control over the minds of the sheeple, getting them to vote for him, which is a sort of democracy of brainwash signifying not merely a tyranny of the majority, but one of the majority as a mass incapable of thinking for itself, a perversion of all the ideals of "our" democracy.
If he on the other hand didn't collude, then... things sit precisely the same, only in reverse: Trump's political enemies used the very same tools to fool everyone and their dog into ensuring that the man is practically unable to get his second term. You may not agree with me -- and at this point in the argument I don't really care -- but getting people to believe a different lie through the very same mechanism actually denotes the precise same type of tyranny, except this time "our" democracy supposedly went the right an' proper way. In other words, I don't buy any argument which presupposes that the ends justify the means; they don't and that's that, now go home already.
What I'm trying to say is that in attempting to understand the relationship between tyranny and democracy, one comes to the inescapable conclusion that the two are not only compatible, they are inextricably tied. It's not even hard to see how they are tightly coupled in a historical root which started its life cycle during the French Revolution. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
What I'm saying is that we Westerners have been living in a particularly grotesque version of North Korea for at least a decade now, only most of us were and still are too stupid to see it.
I suppose reality should start creeping in right about...