To me, it is the ultimate arrogance … or maybe self-delusion for any one human to believe that they single-handedly can change the course of humanity. For others to think the same of another, well … I am not sure if that is naiveté, wishful thinking, or simply and willful release of self-responsibility. It drives me insane when people lay the blame of everything that goes wrong in a country on one man’s shoulders. I don’t care how much influence a single person may have … they cannot do anything that affects large numbers of people alone. It is a simple matter of logistics. Even the most powerful dictator did not rule their country alone. They my have been the idea man; they may have started actions … but they themselves could not have possibly done them all. A dictator without an army and other people supporting their efforts is nothing other than a man with strong (and maybe unpopular) ideas. We have thousands of them in our jails and mental institutions. What makes the different from those that succeeded? Ultimately how much support they had.
I am, by definition, Jewish. The same definition that was used to determine the course of lives in Nazi Germany. Many choose not believe that the Holocaust ever happened, despite plenty of evidence (not the least survivors stories). For the rest, most lay the responsibility on ONE man. Does anyone else see what a ridiculous concept that is? One man did not single-handedly kill 12 million people, while at the same time wage war with the rest of the world. One man did not build death camps and weapons, invade countries, cause the whole world to feel for their own safety. One man COULDN’T do that. So why do we call that one man responsible for it all, and label him the epitome of evil … and conveniently forget the thousands of other people who enabled his “dreams” to come true? Especially considering the irony that before the “evil” empire, that man helped save a country in ruins.
Now in my own country, we have people screaming about how one president or other is the cause of all the problems in the nation. Somehow they alone have waged wars, or created laws that are supposedly the next step to fascism (some even go so far as compare the current regime to Nazi Germany), and seem to completely ignore the fact that if democracy has failed … it is because WE THE PEOPLE did not do OUR job. It is even more ridiculous in a government that is set up with checks and balances precisely to ensure no one individual has too much power, to blame things on just one individual. Even if those checks and balances don’t work as they should.
No single individual wield enough power to change the lives of the many … unless the many them that power. It is simple as that. A democracy is based on the will of the people … if the power is taken from the people it is because they did nothing to prevent it. It does not good to start screaming bloody murder t those who take advantage of an opportunity that WE gave them. If we want the power back, it is up to US to take it. And the reality is, even in oppressive governments, the same holds true. Yes it is that much more difficult, because we are then dealing with actual danger to our safety, maybe even our own lives. So at this point, the decision often becomes is my life more important than another’s? Even then, we can not blame others for the choice we make. Sure it is a difficult choice, and I can not honestly say what my choice would be until I directly face such a decision. But whatever choice we make … it is OUR choice. Tyranny exists because WE allow it to exist. Injustice exists because WE allow it to exist. Even corruption exists because WE allowed it to. Stop looking outside ourselves for the blame, because no one else can really be responsible for the choices WE make.
Maybe once we acknowledge this simple fact, we can start fixing what is broken.
