Humanity as a relay race

August 2024

This post was inspired by current geopolitical events, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Iran's use of proxy militias in the Middle East, and maritime tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

Humanity is a relay race, one that has been mostly unbroken for the last 200,000 years.

If we are lucky, we spend the first 20 years of our lives learning to be sociable humans; the next 20 navigating our way through the rules and rungs of society; the next 20 carrying the proverbial baton as leaders and mentors of our communities, families, and organizations; and the last 20 riding off into the sunset with more or less grace.

This is why I hold autocrats and dictators in special contempt: they are entirely devoid of that grace. They break the perennial social contract by clinging onto the power baton until death pries from their cold hands. Society only has mortality to thank as the ultimate leveler of the playing field, but more often than not, nepotism ensures the cycle perpetuates itself through a groomed child or nephew.

We used to call them pharaohs, caesars, and emperors, and nowadays supreme leader, respected comrade, general secretary of the party. They’re all the same, though. They share this pathological aversion to humility, self-effacement, and historical continuity. All that matters to them is extending their abusive stay one day at a time. To that effect, the deranged personality cult they build, and the occasional wars that they launch to distract from domestic failures, are just the continuation of policy with other means.

They also share a nihilistic indifference to what happens after they die. King Louis XV of France used to say: “après moi le déluge”, i.e., the deluge may come after my death for all I care (ironically, the French Revolution soon rained hard on his dynasty). The legacy they want to build is one of oversized gold-plated statues and mausoleums, not improvements to the human condition of their own subjects.

The wheels of cosmic justice grind exceedingly fine, but they turn slowly. Until death does its leveling job one autocrat at a time, whole generations are wasted on the hubris of just a few men (rarely women, it must be said). It is difficult to overstate how disproportionate the deleterious influence on History of just a handful is, relative to their unremarkable human characteristics.

Which is why we must cherish the common good (the res publica, now republic), the democratic process (whether direct or otherwise) of appointing its stewards, the constitutionally-enshrined term limits, and a strong fifth estate empowered by a free and neutral internet. It is also why we must remain vigilant and wary of demagogy and populism, which are early indicators that someone is willing to rewrite the rules of the relay race to their personal benefit.