That ruthlessness makes them aware others may be more ruthless and manipulative, so they become paranoid and despotic. People rise through autocracies by ruthlessly serving the organization, the bureaucracy. Organization man turns into gangster man.
Given the chance, talented people will go where fulfillment lies. Bloomberg reports, “The effects of the brain drain in sectors such as education, health care and even finance will likely be felt by residents for years to come.” American institutions now have nearly as many top-tier AI researchers from China as from the United States. The American ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, points out that Hong Kong is suffering a devastating brain drain. So many of the best and brightest are now fleeing Russia. Autocracies restrict freedom for the sake of order.
IMPERIAL GLORY DEMOCRACY OR AUTOCRACY FREE
The liberal ideal is that people should be left as free as possible to construct their own ideal. Human beings these days want to have full, rich lives and make the most of their potential. Vladimir Putin understood nothing about what the Ukrainian people wanted, how they would fight or how his own army had been ruined by corruption and kleptocrats. The Russian intelligence failure about Ukraine has been astounding. No one tells the top man what he doesn’t want to hear. Information flows are distorted by power. Often in autocracies, decisions are made within a small, closed circle. We still make mistakes but the system learns. Many economists last year said inflation would not be a problem but Larry Summers and others said it would and they turn out to have been right. In any system, one essential trait is: How does information flow? In democracies, policymaking is usually done more or less in public and there are thousands of experts offering facts and opinions. The wisdom of many is better than the wisdom of megalomaniacs. This is not an occasion for democratic triumphalism it’s an occasion for a realistic assessment of authoritarian ineptitude and perhaps instability. It’s become clear that when it comes to the most important functions of government, autocracy has severe weaknesses. Yet the past few weeks have been revelatory.
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