The Limits of Tyranny

Mr McClarey makes the point that, like all human institutions, tyrannies are 'mortal', they do not last forever.

From The American Catholic

By Donald R. McClarey, JD

Great scene from Casablanca (1942).  We forget how grim most of the film was because of its eventual happy ending.  The movie came out in November 1942 shortly after Operation Torch.  On the whole 1942 had been a grim year for the Allies, but with Midway, El Alamein, Guadalcanal and Stalingrad, 1942 also marked the turning point of the War.  However let us imagine a less happy reality in which Japan retained much of its new found empire and the Third Reich held on to much of Europe.  Tyranny forever?  No, because tyranny tends to raise up unremitting foes and because the chief enemy of all tyrannies cannot be beaten:  Time.  All despotisms are a more or less futile attempt to call a time out on History.  Hitler talked about his thousand year Reich.  The Japanese imagined that their Emperor was destined to rule the four corners of the globe.  Today we have truly foolish individuals who speak about being on the right side of History and work feverishly and futilely to make that category error a reality.  One of the few truisms of Man’s journey in this Vale of Tears is the impermanence of “permanent” institutions with the Catholic Church, so far, being an exception to this rule.  Mere human contrivances are erected in one historical moment and in the next change, and in the next fall to pieces.  Human tyrannies are not immune to that rule, no matter how formidable they appear, or how ghastly they are to the people with the misfortune to live under them.