Yesterday I attended an author event where Venezuelan author Ramón Guillermo Aveledo presented his latest book, “El dictador, Anatomía de la tiranía” (The Dictator, An Anatomy of Tyranny.)
Aveledo is an attorney with a Ph.D in political science, the author of eighteen books on politics, history and law and has figured prominently in Venezuelan public life as a politician, journalist and academic.
The book is a comparative analysis of a sample of the world’s great dictators; Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Trujillo, Mao, Franco and Castro. (All dead except for one last unburied cadaver.)
Reaching beyond the sphere of Latin American politics, Aveledo seeks to dissect and reveal the inner workings and commonalities of these despots that represent a wide spectrum across political and cultural differences.
I can’t speak much more of the book as I’ve just gotten hold of it, but from Aveledo’s clear and erudite speech it was possible to see his genuine concern for the dangers that democratic societies face from these messianic “heroes” who have come to save the people from external, internal and imagined enemies, even from the people itself if need be.
In response to an audience member’s question of what qualifies a country as dictatorial, he presented an interesting view on this important topic (timely in this era of authoritarian regimes that go out of their way to appear democratic while suppressing internal dissent and freedom of speech.)
Recognizing that dictatorships rarely manifest from one day to the next, but rather that they develop as a process, Aveledo suggested imagining a “fear-meter” which could gauge to what extent people would refrain from doing or saying things in the public sphere out of fear of reprisal. That, in his mind is a clear indicator that a society is in the grip of a dictatorial power, if only in its infancy. Only strong institutions can guard against authoritarian power.
Another observation I heard was that the citizens of a country are often instrumental in raising a dictator to power, lured by promises of easy fixes for society’s ills. Later, they find that the one-way street that is tyranny, costs little to begin but carries an immense toll to get out of.
It’s interesting that Aveledo being Venezuelan, makes no mention of Chávez in the book. A wise decision, no doubt, leaving it up to the readers to draw their own comparisons and conclusions. This hasn’t stopped chavistas from denouncing the successful publication, calling it “subversive” and “dangerous”, discouraging its sale in airport bookshops among other places. The fact that brilliant writers can still speak and publish in Venezuela shows that a certain degree of freedom still exists in the country, in spite of the constant attacks on political pluralism by Chávez and his cohorts, and precisely due to the constant challenge of a few brave voices such as Aveledo’s.
On this topic, blogger Daniel Duquenal mentions Aveledo’s book in his post
Is Venezuela a dictatorship? with thoughtful ruminations on this question.
Interesting, I’ll look it up.
I’d add that one of the strongest attractions of a dictatorship to common people, together with a desire for order, is the idea that “we” will be part of the top of totalitarian society. Behind popular support of dictators there’s always selfishness.
You’re right, selfishness features prominently in revolutions and dictatorships, because they both negate dialogue and pluralism, making second-class citizens of the people on the “wrong side”.
What people find after a while is that it gets harder and harder to stay within the tenuous borders of “right side” and the complaints department has blood-stained walls.