I recently read “Defense Against Demagogues” by Walter E. Williams
at Townhall.com. I was drawn to this article because it raised two questions in my mind. What is it about demagogues that requires a defense? and How and why can demagogues and economics possibly sit at the same table?
It was
demagogues that captured my immediate and complete attention. The word jumped off the page and into my mind and it clearly said: Pay attention
here! Mr. Williams strongly illustrated the point that “The greatest tool in the
arsenal of demagogues is economic ignorance…” but I came up a little short of understanding the tools in the demagogues arsenal. After a few minutes with a dictionary, a Wikipedia article and a thesaurus, I was also convinced that we do need a defense and I was ready to better understand
Mr. Williams’ intended message.
This is what I learned during those few minutes and why I decided that a defense against demagogues is required: [from French “demagogue”, derived from
the Greek “demos” = people/folk and the verb “ago” = carry/manipulate thus “people manipulator”] A
demagogue is a political leader who appeals to the emotions, fears, prejudices
and ignorance of people in order to gain power and promote political motives.
Demagogues take advantage of a fundamental weakness in a democracy. In a
democracy, the ultimate power is held by the people and there is nothing to
stop the people from giving power to someone who appeals to the lowest common
denominator of a large segment of the population. Relentlessly and without
self-restraint, demagogues appeal to the emotions of the poor and the
uninformed, pursue personal power, and tell lies to stir up hysteria and
exploit crises to intensify popular support for their call to immediate action
and increased authority. To enhance their self image, demagogues accuse
opponents of weakness and disloyalty to the nation even as they, themselves, are
manipulative, bigoted and pernicious.
A defense against demagogues is clearly important to all of us. We need to commit ourselves to learning to recognize and protect ourselves from these ‘people
manipulators’ and we need to increase our understanding and appreciation of
economics. We all have a great deal to lose because of our lack of understanding of
both.
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