Five Steps to Tyranny

When some political groups get into power tyranny may be only five steps away.Step 1. Establish 'in-groups' and 'out-groups'. Former friends and neighbours can become violentenemies quite quickly when differences are exploited. `In-group' members become superior andconfident while `out-group' people feel inferior and inadequate.Out-groups could be those of a different race, sexual preference, the physically or mentallydisabled, homeless, poor or those of a minority religion.A famous experiment in a school in the US highlighted this in-group / out-group phenomena.Young children were told that eye colour was the factor deciding whether they were part of the in-group or out-group. Researchers were shocked to see how quickly cruel behaviour developed in thein-group children (whether blue-eyed or brown-eyed) towards the out-group children. Even closefriends were shunned in favour of other members of the in-group of similar eye colour who mayhave been enemies before the experiment.In another startling experiment in the UK by psycholoststs, Manchester United football supportersenthusiastically went to the aid of a falling stunt man who wore their team's shirt - but NONEhelped him when he wore a Liverpool shirt!Step 2. Train the in-group to behave automatically and without question to authority. In anotherpsychology experiment, actors asked people to give up their seats on a train for no reason exceptthat the actor wanted it. Fifty percent gave up their seats unquestionably as asked. Whenaccompanied by an uniformed person (representing authority) the number of obedient commuters jumped up to 100%! This experiment showed that the danger from society comes not from rebels ordeviants but from the mindless unthinking obedience of the majority.Step 3. Crush `sub-groups', establish a master control group backed up with `moral family values'.In the train experiment above, the subjects were sitting alone and were sober. But what if theexperiment was focused on social sub-groups such as `skinheads', `punks', `New Age Travellers'`football supporters', `Hells Angels' - or any other closely-bonded gang or clique? And what if theywere all high on drink or drugs? The combination of being in a strong anti-social pier-group andintoxicated would, I am sure, result in none of them giving up their seat. In fact, the authoritativefigures would be lucky to escape without assault. So tyrannies protect themselves from this threatby introducing tight control of alcohol and drugs and also setting up a 'master control group' tosubstitute for the many uncontrollable sub-groups. This master control group links the individual tothe heart of the tyranny, and is often `The Party' in communism and Fascism and 'The Church' in