‘Strongman politics’ is an obsolete tradition
There are thousands of realities; grouped as, mechanical, organic and elemental that result from deliberate human undertaking. This is to say, ‘facts abound that are by nature the results of workmanship and creation by human minds. It is sad though that politics isn’t one of them.
How am I sounding, this far? Strange, uh! Yes, strange. I am perhaps getting you nervous by putting open the claim that politics isn’t a deliberate creation of mankind. Because you have always believed that people choose their destiny and design or forge their future. That people have ‘self-rule’ and ‘deliberate choices of who they are and their destiny’ is a farce yet so popular. I repeat: that is an outright lie. Let’s go…
So mysterious is the origin of politics! No scholars have ever successful been able to explain the origin and nature of politics let alone when, how and under what circumstances was politicking born.
It would seem that almost all societies found themselves doing politics and they couldn’t explain why. It came subtly and imperceptibly. Whoever you read in discourses does at the end reveal scholarly flaws over this reality.
This is why scholars of politics and political sciences tend to agree with Aristotle that ‘man is a political animal’ – to mean that politics is so natural to mankind that there seems to have been no time in space one could tell the two apart.
What is known so far about evolution of power
Peer critiqued studies show that perhaps the origin of politics was ‘problems inherent’ in the nature of mankind. Such problems include but are not limited to revelation that; ‘naturally man is brutal, egoistic and animalistic’ thus is driven by individual fulfilment, satisfactions and show of mighty. This is ‘man in the state of nature’. In the state of nature, each of us sought his rights against those of another.
Ensuing from this fact was constant attempt to destroy each other. This automatically threatened our existence and turned life into barbarism. Each one trying to wipe away the other. Hence the origin of the cliché ‘might is right’.
With the violence brought about by human ego, insecurity dominated man and thus death always hang over the head of everyone. Even the mighty were exposed and could be killed in a surprise or calculated assault.
Therefore, everyone got scared and saw that he was inadequate. Now this is logic: if someone feels and admits of being inadequate or unsure, one is prone to being controlled’.
That was that in the state of nature. Due to fear of insecurity and imminent death man submitted personal rights to a select group that formed the state as an authority to oversee and arbitrate, peacefully, the common rights of everyone.
Hence ‘order was made out of chaos’. Now this is the wonder of life: it is insecurity that in the beginning gave rise to security!
By any rate, whoever could create order out of chaos had to be stronger than equal. He also had to assume power over an individual’s will and pose his views as the desired common destiny of the whole community. That was, as noted earlier, a thing individuals or the community couldn’t deliberately let be. No. There had to be circumstances that threatened to thwart peace and take life- for example; war, violence and unpredictability.
The state of nature was pregnant with all those and many more. Thus, whoever could save the common man from those insecurities was acknowledged and got held high. This way, strongmen moved forward.
Strongmen were the earliest – perhaps primordial – rulers. The reason was that only them had a chance to subdue majority menaces that threatened the commons and the community.
For example, they carried successful war exploits and conquered adversaries. This way they became regarded as ‘the capable’ while the majority relegated themselves. At a time ‘the stronger’ were deified as ‘demigods’. This is well explained in ‘the great man theory’ of leadership. And buoyed by that status, great men took the whole power submitting the commonwealth under their feet. This is what we call ‘absolute rulers’.
Strongmen are archaic and obsolete
It came to pass that an absolute ruler suffers the human nature explained above. That is, he is brutal, egoistic and animalistic. The more power one has, the arrogant he becomes.
He craves barbarism to attest to his power. Giving such power to an individual is synonymous to creating uncertainty. It was at this time mankind discovered his journey to safety not yet – not under powerful hands. Gradually, steadily and unconsciously mankind reacted to do away with absolutism. Again, that was not a deliberate move. It took centuries to chip away the discretions of absolutists through rafts of laws and institutions.
Laws and institutions stabilized administrative acts and normalized life thus making strongmen redundant.
