fellow_human@lemmy.zipContext: the classic “power corrupts” cycle. Revolutionaries promise freedom and justice, but the second they get a taste of absolute power, they suddenly decide it’s too good to give up. Castro, Lenin, Cromwell, Robespierre… they all started as “men of the people” and ended up as the very tyrants they swore to overthrow. The meme just takes that historical pattern and makes it hilariously blunt.
If Robespierre had absolute power he wouldn’t have fallen quite so fast and easily. Also other than Castro I’m not really sure man of the people really is an appropriate label for any of them nor one they really embraced.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world
Feathercrown@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There are plenty of cases of this NOT being true, mostly when the person did not choose the power for themselves. Case in point: Presidents George Washington and James A. Garfield. Power doesn’t corrupt; corrupt people seek power.
That being said if you guys wanted to elect me dictator I would absolutely obliterate our current oligarchy and then totally give up power voluntarily as soon as I was done :)