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 violent
enemies quite quickly when differences are exploited. `In-group' members become superior and
confident while `out-group' people feel inferior and inadequate.

Out-groups could be those of a different race, sexual preference, the physically or mentally
disabled, 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 the
in-group children (whether blue-eyed or brown-eyed) towards the out-group children. Even close
friends were shunned in favour of other members of the in-group of similar eye colour who may
have been enemies before the experiment.

In another startling experiment in the UK by psycholoststs, Manchester United football supporters

enthusiastically went to the aid of a falling stunt man who wore their team's shirt - but NONE
helped him when he wore a Liverpool shirt!

Step 2. Train the in-group to behave automatically and without question to authority. In another
psychology experiment, actors asked people to give up their seats on a train for no reason except
that the actor wanted it. Fifty percent gave up their seats unquestionably as asked. When
accompanied 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 or
deviants 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 the
experiment 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 they
were all high on drink or drugs? The combination of being in a strong anti-social pier-group and
intoxicated would, I am sure, result in none of them giving up their seat. In fact, the authoritative
figures would be lucky to escape without assault. So tyrannies protect themselves from this threat
by introducing tight control of alcohol and drugs and also setting up a 'master control group' to
substitute for the many uncontrollable sub-groups. This master control group links the individual to
the heart of the tyranny, and is often `The Party' in communism and Fascism and 'The Church' in
fundamentalism. All tyrannies stress 'the family' and strongly encourage single people to get
married. Single lifestyles are discouraged because it is easier to control a married person
economically and emotionally. A single person with an independent lifestyle is a threat.

Step 4. Ensure that most people `stand by' not 'stand up'. Visit speakers corner in London. Most
people are either passively listening - but a minority are shouting back. It tends to be the SAME
people shouting back no matter what the subject of debate. Tyrannies thrive if dissenters are in the
minority and bystanders are the majority.

Step 5. Get ordinary people to commit evil acts. Having been taught to obey orders, become a
bystander and to bond to the `master control group', people are virtually guaranteed to by compliant
in the bad treatment of the out-group. There was another famous experiment in the US where
ordinary people were encouraged to administer what they thought were electric shocks to humans.
Nobody was actually being electrified but the subjects, believing that there were, continued to press
the button even at levels where it was obvious that the person, whom they did not see but could hear
shouting in agony, was in great pain.

Having created two classes (the all-powerful and the powerless) ethnic cleansing, the `final solution'
can become a reality. The increasing power of the torturer, who is a `normal' person, over victims,
finally culminates in extermination.

opyright Michael Davies 2001