- Global Leaders Must Fear Losing Everything They Have

Tyranny takes hold when good people are lulled into inaction. Those of us who mind our own business and prefer government to leave us alone are particularly prone to falling into this trap. Because we have no use for government, we hope government will have no use for us. So we are silent while evil grows far from our homes. We tend to our basic comforts and ignore evil as it nears. And, eventually, we even collaborate with evil in order to avoid making a public scene. In an effort to "get by" without causing too many waves, tyranny's waves grow bigger and stronger until they crash upon our homes. By then, it is too late to batten down the hatches. Evil has already broken through our doors. 

I had hoped that we would have more time. That must be the common sentiment shared by every generation grappling with what comes next. I had hoped that the sheer destruction of the twentieth century would be enough to buy us many more decades of relative peace. Regrettably, two world wars and a nuclear-tipped Cold War did nothing to temper governments' lust for power or their financial backers' lust for wealth. WWI's clash of empires should have discouraged the growth of trigger-happy alliances and endless conquest.

The evil unleashed by WWII's totalitarian regimes should have discouraged the growth of centralized institutions and vast, unaccountable, "just following orders" bureaucracies. Instead, military alliances, central banks, international governing bodies, administrative Leviathans, and trade organizations have accumulated more power today than at any other time in history. The twenty-first century is the century of empire-building and totalitarianism, and unless ordinary people rein in the excesses of their own governments, the mass destruction that follows will make the first two world wars look like measly hors d'oeuvres.