The greatest weakness of Dictatorship

 In a new BBC documentary about the last days of the Soviet Union, "TraumaZone", a director of the State Planning Committee in 1990 proudly shows around the premises in Moscow: "Here we get information about all aspects of life in the Soviet Union. The flow of information is filtered in the building, and becomes more and more concentrated. Then, once the plan is set, it becomes a tidal wave of information that rains down on every worker,” explains the director.

 Images from reality are shown: A laundry which, after a renovation, is now obliged to produce a certain amount of scrap metal every year; potatoes harvested to rot; fights in bread lines.

 "The system began to become absurd," states an informational text laconically. The same top management system now reaps Russian victims in Ukraine.

 A recurring explanation for why invasion forces suffer such heavy losses is that officers on the ground are not allowed to devise tactics independently. Everything has to be coordinated higher up, making it impossible for soldiers to adapt to rapidly changing conditions on the battlefield.

 It is difficult to understand how such obviously dysfunctional and ineffective systems can continue for so long. Maybe it's hubris. But in a way the absurdity is also the very purpose. A famous definition of power is that it is the ability to make a person do something that he would not otherwise have done.

 If you really want to demonstrate your power, then it is not possible to command things that are in the interest of the subordinates, because then how are you to know for what reason they carry out the action?

 Power is most visible when the order is most irrational, as schoolyard bullies have always understood. Say you're an idiot. Beat yourself up. Drink from the toilet. See what I can make you do!

 In an authoritarian state such as today's Russia or the communist Soviet Union, such demonstrations of power are important parts of state building. Since the whole arrangement is based on coercion, it is important to constantly remind who is really in charge.

 Russia's army is organized like a big bully gang, where everyone is harassed by their superiors, and themselves harass them further down the ladder. At the top is Putin, who orders brutal assassinations of those who might conceivably challenge him and does not shy away from publicly humiliating his own aides. A certain amount of absurdity is necessary. The problem with constantly forcing people to go against their own interests and their own better knowledge is that it also lowers efficiency.

 It is not possible to control in detail either a society or an army from the top. Over time, therefore, the ability to perform is depleted, even if the obedience apparently remains. Power becomes an illusion, as TraumaZone's contrast between plan and real economy clearly illustrates.

 True influence, in the sense of successfully achieving goals beyond blind obedience, paradoxically requires letting go of control, giving people the freedom to use their own knowledge and initiative. That dictatorships can never accept that will always be their greatest weakness.

 

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