Its not that you are surrounding yourself by ass kissers, its that its in the very nature of power that people around you will try to profit off this power.
I’m not saying that for a short amount of time a single person cant make good decisions on a large scale. But if this works, it does so because there are checks and balances put in place that limit the power to the position, not the person itself and has means of democratically replacing that person, there is civil control and media control of their actions, etc. Pp.
Its not so much the person that is like the personification of Jesus, can’t be coaxed, can’t be bribed, can’t be frightened, can’t be mislead, can’t be misinformed in any way, its the system that secures the people of oppression.
Sure you need someone reasonably upright and good for even the best system to work, but if there is no system limiting the power, even the best leader will get corrupted by it over time. We see it everywhere in history, time and time again. Power corrupts.
It references exactly what is meant, for the people in my home country Hitler was considered a strong handed, good, democratically ellected leader. For a lot of people in america trump is a strong handed, democratically elected, good leader, for a lot of people meloni is a strong handed, democratically elected leader.
The very point is, that people fall for fascists, believing they are “strong handed” and “people who get the job done, even if the means of archiving it are hard”
The point is that the trope of “having a vision/plan better then everyone else, which you demand is followed strictly is always the first step in delegitimizing opposing voice, minorities, foreigners etc. The first step in taking power is always to convince the public you know better then everyone else (usually with scapegoats which in your narrative only you can fight, mostly you use the groups you delegitimsed before). Then you get power and take mesures to secure that power, normally by silencing or buying the press. You give yourself ever more freedom to do what you want (like spy on everyone) and your reason why this is OK are always those scapegoats or general " terrorism”
If you collected enough power, you can prevent the next elections or fake them.
Trump tried this. He is exactly the bilderbuch example for why this point is in the list
Fascists never come and say “hi, I am the fascist and I want to opress 80% of you, please elect me” They come and say “look, those 5%, they are the root of all your problems, but I can save you from them, all others are to blind to see, but I will finally put drastic measures in place to save you from them! I am the strong leader who will get you through this”
Wise people on the other hand mostly talk about where they’re unsure in their theories, what could go wrong, and mist importantly listen to their opposition and other opinions