Back in July 2017, I wrote a column called “The Tyranny of Statistics,” and at that point I envisioned a “Tyranny Trilogy” that I’d get around to writing one day. The second installment, inspired by our last president, was October 2020’s “The Tyranny of Truthiness.”
With New Jersey Assemblyman Erik Peterson’s defiance of Covid protocols at the New Jersey Statehouse on Dec. 2, 2021—”This is tyranny!” was his exact quote—and the one-year anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol this month, it seems the perfect time to address the subject of this column: The Tyranny of Being Afraid of Tyranny.
Tyranny is an explosive word—it gets people’s attention. But it also gets thrown around a lot, and not just with the wink-and-a-nod humorous approach I’ve attempted in the past. It’s not the only weighty word that’s casually used these days: “authoritarian,” “totalitarian,” and “fascist” are also popular.
But tyranny stands out: aside from Peterson’s remarks in November, September featured musician Dave Mustaine of the band Megadeth making a stop in Camden during the band’s nationwide tour, and invoking the “T word” while referring to mask regulations. “This is called tyranny,” he said, seeing no irony in the fact that megadeath, on a nationwide basis, is exactly what mask and vaccine rules are intended to prevent.
The New Jersey Libertarian Party posted an article called “Click It or Ticket Tyranny in Somerset County,” noting on its website that by enforcing fines, local government would be commencing “a crackdown on peaceful people who have chosen not to wear their seat belts.”
I don’t have a problem with seat belt laws; I see them as a reasonable component of the social contract in which we give up certain freedoms, like driving faster than the speed limit or making fertilizer bombs at home, in exchange for societal benefits or increased personal safety. Seat belt laws have probably saved the lives of many people who wouldn’t have buckled up without the threat of a ticket.
But even if you feel those laws are unjustified, do they really merit the word “tyranny?” (If you think they do, New Hampshire, the “Live Free or Die” state, doesn’t have a seat belt law, so anyone who chafes at seat belt requirements can go there to Live Free, and Be Statistically More Likely to Die.)
References to tyranny are everywhere: the tyranny of the few and the tyranny of the many, medical tyranny and vax tyranny, corporate tyranny and special interest tyranny. Many individuals, including several high-ranking politicians, cited “tyranny” in their attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
It would be a lot easier to spot the tyrannically inclined if, as in the fictional Star Wars universe, ethically challenged politicians like New Jersey’s Sen. Robert Menendez and U.S. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell spent at least part of their time responding to names that made their self-dealing intentions clear: Darth Bought and Darth Stall, perhaps? The name “Darth Tyranus” was already used in the Star Wars movie prequels, but there are plenty of people who, in their indignation about masks, vaccines, and Covid testing, would love to bestow the title upon our current New Jersey governor.
One problem with the widespread use of the word “tyranny” is its misuse: tyranny does not exist simply because there is a law, rule, or policy with which you individually disagree. You may not like Darth Murphy’s vaccine or mask mandates, but they’re a far cry from the intentionally abusive Tuskegee experiments (1932-1972), or the injection of hepatitis into mentally incompetent children at the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island (1956-1971).
Vaccine use is supported by evidence, and vaccine mandates have plenty of legal precedents. The first U.S. vaccine mandate was enacted in 1809, for smallpox, and in 1905, the Supreme Court upheld required vaccinations, emphasizing the “common good” of society. One relevant definition of tyranny is “arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power,” but there’s nothing arbitrary or unrestrained about mask and vaccine mandates. They’re simply intended to keep the majority of New Jerseyans safe and free from day-to-day disruptions, like those created by non-vaccinated people filling hospitals and infecting others.
Peterson’s declaration at the New Jersey Statehouse was an obvious exaggeration—lawmakers were given the option to show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test, or to attend meetings and cast votes remotely instead. His may have been a purely political ploy, but there are many people who are genuinely concerned that vaccine and mask mandates represent not just government overreach, but the first step of a sinister movement toward tyranny.
Unfounded claims of tyranny paint a bleaker and more sensational picture than the truth. We control the government, the government does not control us. If bad ideas become law, the Constitution allows us, collectively, the flexibility to change them.
If you’re concerned about tyranny in the United States, the best thing you can do is simply vote, something a third of eligible voters decided not to do in 2020. Those looking to do more can exercise their right to peacefully protest anything—including mask and vaccine mandates—in person or online.
But if the goal is to guard against tyranny, I’d argue that there are more effective ways to direct one’s energies and outrage than fighting against vaccines and masks. Regardless of political leanings, issues like redistricting and gerrymandering, financial conflicts of interest in government, voting rights, and election integrity bear much more directly on the average citizen’s ability to have a voice in this country’s future.
One unfortunate casualty of the upsurge in tyranny fear is the Revolutionary War-era Gadsden flag, also known as the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, whose coiled snake has become less a reminder of our country’s stand against the British, and more of a signal to stay clear if you want to avoid Covid, or a lengthy discussion of politics.
I’d wager that many tyranny-hating flag-flyers once met political disagreements with the blunt-force “America—Love It or Leave It” argument, but have since decided that a person can both love America and criticize it, appreciating its unique legal framework even while working to change it. And, one might add, without being sent to a re-education camp, made to disappear, or worse. Take a look at Russia, China, Syria, Venezuela, or any of a dozen similar countries. Now that’s tyranny.
If you’re looking for a flag to fly below “Old Glory,” consider one featuring the “Join or Die” image created by Ben Franklin back in 1754. It also features a snake, divided into segments labeled with the names of various regions of the pre-United States. The message then, as now, is not intended as a threat, but as a warning: failure to see the bigger picture and unite as one through a government, as Abe Lincoln later put it, “of, by, and for the people,” could prove fatal… to individuals, through some rampant breakthrough strain of Covid, or to democracy, through divisions among ourselves that foster a lack of faith in this country’s system of government.
In the latter case, like the ancient Roman Republic, we might just end up with that tyrant after all.
Peter Dabbene’s website is www.peterdabbene.com, and his previous Hamilton Post columns can be read at communitynews.org. His latest work, “Call Waiting,” can be seen at idleink.org. His book Complex Simplicity collects the first 101 editions of this column, along with essays and material published elsewhere. It is now available at Amazon.com or Lulu.com for $25 (print) or $4.99 (ebook).
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