It’s been often said, the best conversation is always done over drinks; if I may, my fellow friend, let me pour you a drink of curiosity into your cup in dyer hope to spark your imagination.  For a moment I hope to have a conversation -well, a one-way conversation to share an opinion among common mynds, entertain or even spark your interest in a controversial topic which has swept over the nation, perhaps the world: Tyranny-WTF is that?

Now, before we can enjoy this one-way conversation, we must first understand what tyranny is; that alone can truly get us to enjoy this drink of curiosity, especially if you consider yourself a thynker like this Pynk Elephant.

First, let us raise some questions. What is tyranny? What makes a tyrant? What drives the masses into submitting their will, their conscience to trust a tyrant? Do people trust tyrants overnight or is it a gradual process? Can politicians be tyrants as well?

From reading many history books, I have come to understand most ideals are meant to be seen as wonderful to the observer, but history will prove to them to be cruel. See, my fellow pynk elephant, history does not repeat itself. Sure, it can seem certain events are similar, but if truth be told, history is written for our instruction. Failing to learn from it, we are bound to commit similar mistakes as our past fellow men.

Tyrants as politicians will often begin with one sole mission: to improve the well-being of their constituents. The slippery slope has often been when the conscience of the elected begins to coerce others into promoting, imposing their agenda. Now, I understand in our day and age we are a generation that takes in information in snippets, 30 seconds to 1-minute video reels. But, if you want answers to hard questions, to understand the marrow of life, you will have to dig deep, seek, knock until your soul is satisfied with answers which may even lead you to question your own axiom. Below, I will provide the meat and potatoes of two tyrants who left their mark in history, leaving unique yet similar blueprints for any individual aspiring to become a successful tyrant.

As I stated earlier, history can be used as an instruction to a thynker, a pynk elephant who raises questions and keeps its eyes & mynd open. As these two tyrants left their blueprints for those aspiring to become a tyrant, these blueprints can also be for any pynk elephant who questions the norm, the status quo to see the façade of “progression” from a politician or even a state. Joseph Stalin & Adolf Hitler, these two douchebags who would go on to impose their will upon their country, their countrymen and conduct atrocious acts all under the consent, acceptance, of their people. Understanding these two historical figures will help us understand the characteristics of a tyrant or a state working towards a tyrant-style regime.

Most individuals often ask how did these two men become tyrants? Simple: Controlling information. Do I have your attention? If I do, let me pour more curiosity into your cup, as your mynd sits back, stirs the olive in this dirty curiosity-like-martini, and begins to digest information about the first tyrant, Joseph Stalin.

A tyrant in laymen’s terms is a cruel ruler. But tyrants do not show their true colors until it is too late. Take, for example, Joseph Stalin, who was a mastermind when it came to coercion. He understood how important it was to control the masses and those of his politburo. He had one virtue few possess: Patience. From the moment the coup d’état of 1917 in Russia happened, there was no structure of power upon his ascension.

As Vladimir Lenin was aging and slowly dying from his second stroke, Joseph Stalin, began to wield power upon himself, cunningly posed no threat as the communist party’s power grew in 1917-1924; he subtly and prudently managed to win his comrades of the politburo (policymakers of the communist party) by portraying to be the faithful friend of the working man. When Stalin finally took reign in late 1924 as General Secretary after the death of Lenin from his third stroke, Stalin’s mission was to condition the populace into submissiveness, into having total faith in his every word and council, and this could only be achieved by winning the trust of the politburo first. Stalin achieved his heart’s desire by manipulating information, becoming the voice of Marxism, Leninism, portraying to be a pseudo communist demigod -the people admired him and so did the members of the party.

Fifteen years before the great terror of the late 1930s, Stalin gradually build an army of propaganda, the likes no one prior had seen. He doctored files, photos, even created threats and fears (which did not exist), leading the members of the politburo, the people of Russia to look unto him as the savior of the USSR. This army of propaganda helped him take out anyone who opposed his reign of terror.¹ By Manipulating information released to the public, Stalin swayed the minds of the masses by changing textbooks, literature, Stalin basically rewrote Russian history to his liking,²  helping him wield power away from the politburo and anyone who questioned his authority, leadership, and the people accepted it.³ No one, and I mean no one raised an eyebrow even when he gradually, openly began to attack a group among his countrymen.⁴

In theory, what I have learned from reading history and psyops form of psychology, one must first, create a cause, name the problem which brings division within the populace, and finally, provides a solution.  USSR from 1917-1937 was a backward economy due to a class of capitalists which hoarded the best of the fatherland; this class was usurping the best away from all the people, according to Stalin. These capitalists were no different than those outside of Russia, these countrymen, fellow citizens of the fatherland were known as the kulaks.⁵ This narrative was pushed by Stalin as he pressed it upon his people through books, newspapers, radio, building a hatred towards this one specific class (Sounds familiar?).⁶

According to Stalin, the kulaks were the reason why Russia could not compete with capitalist countries, the reason for famine in the fatherland, and why many of the populace remained poor and unemployed.⁷What was the solution Stalin presented to the people and the politburo? The kulaks had to either oblige & give up their lands for the success of the fatherland, provide goods & services at a lower rate than they were already providing or, the state would have to impose mandates, pass laws and eventually take away from them their rights, property for the success of the party (Communism 101). ⁸

To avoid such pain and backlash, a small percentage of the kulaks obliged to the new mandates, laws imposed by the Communist party,⁹ but those who did not, the populace who had embrace the ideals of Communism, taking to heart what they heard from their dear father Stalin, began to coerce, bully, their fellow countrymen, the kulaks.¹⁰

These citizens who were faithful comrades of the fatherland, vandalized many of the kulak’s property, destroyed their homes, even killing some. When the state finally began to force the kulaks to hand over their property, goods & services, many of this class burned their properties while others went to the extreme and committed suicide.¹¹Others, waited for the iron hand to give them their dose of reality: imprisonment and hard labor in concentration camps. More than 10 million were either killed or sent into concentration camps in the terror of the 1930s.¹²

Stalin could only have accomplished this vile attack upon the kulaks through manipulating information. Through false information, even coercion, voluntarily the public opinion shifted to believe what they read, heard, was spoken among each other through the fatherland, and what the party leaders presented to be “true”. The manipulation of information is the greatest weapon Stalin had in USSR, yet it was a beta version compared to the tyrant who took it to a whole new level.

The well-known fascist tyrant of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, got back into the public eye in 1926 after being imprisoned for the failed coup d’état of 1923.¹³ As Hitler resurface into public, 1929’s market crash in the United States would have a ripple effect on a global scale, and Germany would feel it the most.¹⁴ This is where Hitler took to heart Machiavelli’s “fox and lion” theory and put it into practice. In the election of 1933, Hitler ran a campaign of building back Germany into a global competitor, hoping to remove it from the fangs of bankers, financiers, and the grip of the Jewish globalist.¹⁵ Unfortunately, due to economic woes, the German people who had enough of being blamed for the great war and being forked the bill from the treaty of Versailles, embrace Hitler’s rhetoric and voted him to become chancellor of Germany.¹⁶ It was this election, the last election to be honest, that Hitler would not only coerce his will upon the German government but also upon the people of Germany with the aid of his political party: The Nazis. As the cabinet of the German government was not fully complete because other party members (the communist party of Germany, Social-democrats, democrats, etc.) were fighting to have at least one of their colleagues be part of the forming government, Hitler, saw his opportunity to make a move, and like a fox, cunningly moved the opposition to towards his plan.¹⁷

Now, it may seem your attention span may be waning, perhaps because you finished your curiosity-like-martini. Let me make you another one, as I assure you, your imagination may be sparked as you grasp how this tyrant turn dictator managed to take hold of the German government and country within 18 months.

It was the burning of a specific building on February 23, 1933, which led Germany into the hands of Hitler and the Nazi party. This building was not any ordinary building in Germany. No, this building was a symbolic testament to democracy for Germany and its people.¹⁸ This building was the Reichstag budling, which was burned down by a “lone wolf,” a member of the “communist party”, giving Hitler and his Nazi party the needed wedge to embark on the subtle coup, propaganda-style machine to indoctrinate the masses and taking control of the German nation. The following day, Hitler persuaded the president, Van til Hangeberg to sign a state of emergency after of the burning of the Reichstag budling.¹⁹ Hitler persuaded the people of Germany through newspapers, radio, using fear, ‘Democracy was under threat (hmmm, again, does this sound familiar?),’ and as the state of emergency went into effect, the civil liberties of the people were usurped.²⁰

Hitler, alongside the Nazi party, began to press upon opposing party members to resign. The populace being informed that a ‘communist’ had burned down the building, shifted their allegiance towards the Nazi party and eminently in unison, accepted their proposal, no question asked, as the “the state of emergency” was removing their civil liberties as citizens, it was also giving Hitler the opportunity to bombard the government with bill after bill, leading his party and himself to become a dictator and a one-party government within 18 months.²¹ The burning of the Reichstag building, which was later discovered to be conducted under Hitler’s Nazi party,²² blindly shackled politicians, German citizens into Hitler’s military-style government. Through fear, coercion, the manipulation of information which passed through news media from the Nazi party unto the people, helped Hitler and the Nazi party unleash upon the world their evil intentions upon Jewish German citizens and the Jewish sect.²³ This interesting checkmate of a coup d’état conducted by Hitler, would lead Germany and their people into a dark phase in History.

Often, those who absorb new information, or are learning for the first time about historical figures that were evil, ask, “how did no one see or fight back?”

Fear, propaganda, and hearing the masses of people speaking in one language under fear, will make any rational person found thynking pynk, maybe they are in error. Manipulation of information, doctored information, and misinformation is the weapon used by tyrants and their governments to control the masses, and those who can thynk for themselves, the best tool to use against them is the term, “conspiracy theorist.” It’s been used through history, the definition is the same, the name is always different. Therefore, I raise a question: Is the Present holding the hand of the past? Are there similarities between the present and the past, with world governments pushing upon the masses, a narrative that has intoxicated the masses to drink from the chalice of fear? Let us not go far, what is the narrative being imposed upon the free thynking American?

Under the cloak of Emergency, I don’t doubt any human being would’ve done anything different than those citizens under Stalin or Hitler. When we as human beings are faced with danger, or giving a sense of uncertainty, we retrieve to our animalistic instincts: we find comfort in numbers in the herd. Since you have been drinking the wine of curiosity, I ask you this: are you another elephant, following this matriarch ‘Sophia’ who is leading you towards the river of common knowledge to drink with all? Or are you a Pynk Elephant, standing apart from the herd, thynking while it is still legal, searching the matter out, and asking serious questions which may raise eyebrows within your social group, even among those whom you luve?

Tyranny does not happen overnight; it gradually creeps upon the public until it is too late to see the sharp fangs of a tyrannical tiger upon one’s head.  The atmosphere of the current political circus, the current administration, which is over-exercising their federal government power, impose their agenda upon states, as they coerce governors of possible restriction from federal aid, imposing into public schools a new educational theory which questions and even rewrites history; harassing the private and public sector with conflicting mandates, well, that should alarm anyone who has studied history. Under the rouse of fear, an ‘emergency’, tyranny will promise one freedom, safety if the citizen promises to bend their knee and trust them in return.²⁴

The elephants who have accepted the present narrative of the current administration, have already coerced, bully, even impose others to choose the way of their leader(s) or, ostracize others into the abyss. Just like the days of Stalin or even Hitler, public opinion, the psyops of division, can truly affect anyone who is a free thynker, but it takes an act of unique courage, a unique fire to stand firm in principles, to trust truth, knowing it will unveil itself in due time and prove, as it has in the past, manipulation of information always has unhinged threads. Once pulled hard enough, the emperors’ toga will come off and the world will see him without clothes.

I am certain you have finished your last curiosity-like-martini, and perhaps the depth of this one-way conversation either has sparked your imagination, aroused your spirit to ask certain questions about the present culture, or perhaps has turned you off. I hope it is not the latter, I hope this one-way conversation has awakened the pynk elephant inside of you, and perhaps it has left you wondering what you can do-

As a pynk elephant, you, like I, must aim to awake other sleeping elephants with the strong drink of curiosity. Those elephants who are walking with the herd, stir their souls in hope to see just like us, that to rebel for liberty, for ideals, it’s better than bending a knee for granted freedom given by a tyrannical government. if you are afraid to lose your employment, feel ostracized by society, or are being coerced by peers, friends, family to trust a fabricated narrative, well then, you must really ask yourself, are you under a tyrant style regime?

Rebellion. Liberty. Ideals… Give me Pynk!

Thynk Pynk!

 

Endnotes:

1. Hosking, Geoffrey. The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within (London: Fontana Press, 1985) 70, 143, 159.
2. Volkogonov, Dmitri. The First Glasnost Biography Stalin: Triumph & Tragedy (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Limited, 1991) 118, 119, 129, 132.
3. Ibid, 166-68.
4. Ibid, 169.
5. Ibid, 166, 171, 173, 209.
6. Ibid, 161, 177, 180, 184.
7. Ibid, 164.
8. Ibid, 164-65.
9. Hosking, Geoffrey. The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within (London: Fontana Press, 1985) 160-63.
10. Volkogonov, Dmitri. The First Glasnost Biography Stalin: Triumph & Tragedy (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Limited, 1991) 167.
11. Hosking, Geoffrey. The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within (London: Fontana Press, 1985) 158.
12. Ibid, 163.
13. Toland, John. The Definitive Biography of Adolf Hitler (New York: Random House Inc, 1976) 186-87.
14. Quigley, Carroll. Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (New York: Macmillian Co, 1974) 333.
15. Toland, John. The Definitive Biography of Adolf Hitler (New York: Random House Inc, 1976) 267.
16. Ibid, 277, 283, 290.
17. Quigley, Carroll. Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (New York: Macmillian Co, 1974) 436.
18. Toland, John. The Definitive Biography of Adolf Hitler (New York: Random House Inc, 1976) 294, 299, 302, 304.
19. Quigley, Carroll. Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (New York: Macmillian Co, 1974) 438.
20. Ibid, 438.
21. Ibid, 440.
22. Toland, John. The Definitive Biography of Adolf Hitler (New York: Random House Inc, 1976) 322-24.
23. Ibid, 310-11.
24. Snyder, Timothy. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2017) 110.