Which one is Abiy not following?
Posted: 01 Aug 2025, 16:50
How Dictators Survive: The Playbook of Power
Dictators don’t simply appear. They are cultivated, constructed, and carefully preserved.
They follow a familiar playbook:
Step 1: Capture the military. Control the guns, and you control the people.
Step 2: Control the media. Fill the airwaves with praise. Call dissenters “traitors” or “foreign puppets.”
Step 3: Rewrite the constitution. When the law says “two terms,” amend it to say “as long as I want.”
Step 4: Crush the opposition. Imprison them. Exile them. Discredit them.
Step 5: Divide the people. Use tribe against tribe, religion against religion, region against region.
Step 6: Keep the people poor. Hungry citizens don’t protest.
Dictatorship is not just about staying in power. It’s about destroying all alternatives.
Dictators don’t simply appear. They are cultivated, constructed, and carefully preserved.
They follow a familiar playbook:
Step 1: Capture the military. Control the guns, and you control the people.
Step 2: Control the media. Fill the airwaves with praise. Call dissenters “traitors” or “foreign puppets.”
Step 3: Rewrite the constitution. When the law says “two terms,” amend it to say “as long as I want.”
Step 4: Crush the opposition. Imprison them. Exile them. Discredit them.
Step 5: Divide the people. Use tribe against tribe, religion against religion, region against region.
Step 6: Keep the people poor. Hungry citizens don’t protest.
Dictatorship is not just about staying in power. It’s about destroying all alternatives.