On Tyranny in the Modern World

Please be aware that human society is facing an unprecedented, persistent, and comprehensive threat of tyranny!

Tyranny, as a regime seized through usurpation by leveraging popular forces, has serious political flaws. Its ruler, the tyrant, as the name suggests, seizes the highest authority of the state through improper or illegal means (primarily "the barrel of a gun"), without legitimate electoral processes or parliamentary authorization.

This book, through a comparison of classical and modern tyranny, offers insights into the political character of modern tyrants and the operational logic of tyranny, and explores the underlying rules of governance and political ideologies.

The book not only uses historical materials such as "Histories," "Republic," and "Politics" by ancient Greek masters to guide readers in understanding the formation of tyrants and tyranny, but also employs several film and theatrical works from 20th-century communist regimes, such as "The Red Lantern," "The Hurricane," and "The White-Haired Girl," as social microcosms. Supplemented by the arguments of Machiavelli, Weber, and others, it explores the entirely new phenomenon of modern tyranny: modern tyranny differs from classical tyranny not due to "political ignorance" but due to "theoretical self-awareness," possessing fixed political terminology, ideology, and historical justifications.

Through this comparison of ancient and modern, the book further reveals that ancient tyranny was not necessarily despotism, much less totalitarianism; whereas modern tyranny is invariably oppressive, and a cautionary reflection on terror-based despotism. Tyrants and tyranny are not merely relics of pre-Christian eras but have evolved and persisted through the ages to the present day.