Snollygoster: A Corrupt, Unprincipled Person, Mostly a Politician - English

Once ordinary individuals becoming dictators or their obeying followers, the vaporizing of human freedom, and the visible future of the world

I've been thinking a lot lately about how countries are governed, largely because I'm deeply dissatisfied with how my country is governed and am certain that nothing will change in the visible future since there is no solid sign, not even a spark.

However, when I look around the world, I see that every country's situation is catastrophic. Dictators are in charge in many countries, or candidates for future dictators, who are consolidating their seats step by step, accustoming society to their goals avoiding awakening them, just like boiling frogs in slowly warming water.

The people are either frustrated and convinced that even if they defy, nothing will change, or even worse, they have faith in their dictators, convinced that he will protect them from any threat, and they simply follow their dictator quietly without looking any other way.

This latter group surprises me the most; in fact, those are the people I am most terrified of. What desperately surprises me is how they trust in a ruler who does not believe in their own freedom, individuals’ freedom, and demands millions of people comply with his or her vision of "good".

What if that “good” changes in one day?

Where are universal human values and virtues that have managed to reach us filtered through the sieve of centuries and having to defy countless dictators, kings, and shrewdness? Where are all those lessons humanity has learned from experiencing wars, revolutions, murders, and the painfully paid price, all for human freedom?

What most frightens me is this: A person who is ready to disregard our right to freedom, which is an indispensably natural part of our soul whether we recognize it or not, is also ready to ignore what kind of terrible things we will live with in the future. Is the society I live in full of people I cannot trust? My neighbors, friends…

Then, how safe am I really?

Snollygosters living in our society

The Psychology of the Masses

The issue is not that simple, of course. Sociology and psychology have been around for centuries to study such situations, and there is also a concept called "the psychology of the masses" that I find very interesting as a combination of the two.

It is a phenomenon expressing that people who are individually very good people, when they are a part of a mass, will behave in a way that they would never do on their own, even without hesitation, and sometimes even become the most ardent advocates.

What else can explain the fact that stadiums full of soccer fanatics can cheer in ecstasy for 90 minutes, screaming and cursing the fans of the opposing team? These people, our friends with whom we watch movies in silence side by side at the cinema, can react in unexpectedly strong ways to the mistakes of 22 people chasing a ball on a green field. What about extreme nationalism? Just because we are citizens of a country, should we remain silent if that country harms others? Is that what is expected of us? If so, is it okay for us to remain silent when others do the same injustice to us?

Hitler’s Germany is a perfect example of this situation. Every person on earth should read about that era of Germany and German society to understand how a society becomes followers and meek obeyers of an evil leader and his dangerous aims. That awareness may be our guide and weapon to defy the influence of reckless leadership in our countries.

Good Individuals Become Monsters: Unconscious Compliance and the Power of Power

When we approach the situation of the corrupt politicians who were once innocent children or teenagers like any of us, what makes him a dictator is seeing a right in himself to rule people and forcing them to adopt his inner good and make them all the same.

So many of them are corrupt politicians—snollygosters in English—that it is impossible for them to come to a decision that can bring us peace. Is it that they are dazzled by the sheen of power, that they see no problem in adapting to it because almost everyone around them is part of a corrupt system, or is it that they are getting used to it? Perhaps it is a combination of these.

Complying with the politicians around them, adopting their values and behaviors, and being a typical part of them, when this situation is combined with the power of gaining power, makes an ordinary individual a snollygoster.

How to Break the Chain?

This chain of evilness can only be broken with stubborn awareness and an unwavering reliance on the universal virtues of truthfulness, honesty, reliability, and transparency.

A practical solution that can be implemented every day, like a habit:

Everybody should visualize a picture of the future of oneself, the situation 20 years later. Time is a flowing concept. It does not only have now; also future exists and it will definitely come. Live the present, but also think about the future yourself.

Imagine a scene: 20 years later, you are facing your children and talking with them about what you’ve done in your life, sharing good and bad, the right actions you’ve taken, and the bad. You’re receiving their thoughts and comments. Imagine what kind of expression you would like to see on their faces. Are they proud of their parents' acts or ashamed?

And you, what will you be feeling when thinking about your past self? Will you be, but really and deeply, proud of you, or will you feel ashamed of what you’ve done?

All the people around you, your colleagues or friends, will one day go away and be invisible and untouchable, but you, your inner self, will always be with you.

Choose what kind of person you would like to be in touch with all the time, carry in your body, breathe with, rely on, and live your life with. Write all those answers, visualize that person, and then behave like that person.

What is Foreseen in the Near Future

In any case, the system we live in is strange and full of injustice. It is clear that a change is needed. There is a crisis, and it will be solved by something; this is the way the history of humanity tells us.

The question is what will trigger it. As citizens of the world, I think we can expect big surprises, and we better be aware of that, even be a part of that. I hope everything will change for the better.

Notes & Reads:

Defying Hitler: A Memoir is written by Sebastian Haffner (originally Raimund Pretzel), a witness to Nazi Germany. Haffner was a non-Jewish German and, moreover, an aspiring judge who would possibly have a high future career, but he was objecting to Nazi Germany's decision and had to flee from Germany to England in 1938 after his fiancee, who was Jewish, was pregnant. His books were published under the name Sebastian Haffner, not to endanger his family still living in Germany. His memoir was written in 1939 but published after his death, when his son found it in his works. It has been a classic, as it perfectly portrays how German society was seduced by Hitler’s policies and Nazi Germany.

Distopias make us more aware. One of the most famous novels of world literature, 1984 by George Orwell, must be read by any human who hasn’t yet read it. Awareness about world policy and order can best be gained through this perfect distopia. How far evilness in leadership can reach would never be pictured better than this fiction novel. It’s fiction, but you don’t feel it’s an imaginary story while reading it; you feel that it’s the truth with shivers.

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Thank you for taking the time to accompany me in the story of a new word. Every word of the world’s languages is also ours, belonging to humanity while giving us an essence of the culture in which it was rooted.

We are made of stories—that is, of words.