Tyranny and Technology

It is fairly common-place these days to think of democracy as the form of government for modern societies. Other ways of organizing government and society are either intellectually backward phases of communities in flux or else outdated experiments. We might see China, for instance, as a strange hold-out in the modern world. They've given up their more experimental communistic program, but they've maintained their rigid top-down approach to governance. According to this way of thinking, China's present government is just a temporary aberration -- their people want democracy, even if they don't know it, and one day they will get it.

While there are surely many reasons why democracy has flourished in the modern world, I wonder if it isn't just a passing phase. After all, modern technology seems to make tyrannical governments  much harder to oust.

It does this in several ways. First, espionage is now easier given that so much of our communication is open to the government's perusal. It is possible for modern governments to keep track of who is talking to who in a way that was never possible in the past. We now know that the United States government is collecting some of this data. And this, I think, should be worrisome. Regardless of what we are currently doing, however, it is certainly true that any group which got a firm grasp on
the reigns of power could quickly start to monitor everyone. This means that it is much harder to resist the government or try to plan its overthrow.  We haven't seen the true power of these technologies so far because most of the more tyrannical governments are in countries that are behind on technology and our still growing accustomed to using it effectively. As evident from the aftermath of the Arab Spring, governments are learning to use their technology more effectively.

Second, it is virtually impossible for ordinary civilians to contest modern militaries. In the past, civilians could potentially forcefully resist the government. They could hide out in the woods with guns, and gradually wear the government down. This has been basically impossible in technologically advanced countries for awhile now. Ordinary civilians cannot hope to match modern well-trained soldiers for any amount of time.

Finally, as the world gets more affluent, individuals will have more to lose by resisting the system. So long as the government provides our basic needs, people will be disinclined to resist it. The Arab Spring started as a protest against the lack of opportunities for youth. If people have better lives, they will be less willing to gamble them away.

There is no reason to think that modern governments are any more likely to become tyrannies, but modern technology plausibly makes tyrannies much harder to oust. This makes it all the more important that we ensure that our society does not slide into a tyrannical form of government.

We have done very little to change the safeguards that the founders of this country place to prevent tyranny. There has, so far as I am aware, been no "presidential commission on new measures for the prevention of tyrannical governance" or any move to reform government, even as new technologies are being produced. The constitutional amendment that limits presidents to two terms was a step in the right direction, but it stands out as the only non-original amendment to the constitution meant to protect it.

Edward Snowden caused only a very slight ripple with his revelations about government spying. It seems worth thinking very hard about what can be done these days to make sure that we don't gradually lose our democracy.