The tyrant is often reviled as a narcissist, a perpetrator, a harmful individual, malignant, malicious, predatory.
But in my eyes the tyrant, while incredibly harmful, is innocent.
The tyrant believes they can have safety (sometimes that everyone can ONLY have safety) when they are in control.
The tyrant needs control. It's as simple and neutral as that.
It's a pitiable state, when we aren't falling victim to it.
Real freedom lies in surrender. The experience of safety requires acceptance and reverence for what is.
The tyrant is pitiable because they cannot have this freedom, cannot experience this safety. They believe a delusion, that they can control their way to safety. They are obsessed every moment, scanning for threats, lack, instability—places that require their control. No matter how good their life gets, they will always be able to find these, and will always need to exert control. The tyrant is doomed.
The more the tyrant controls, the worse off they are. Not to mention they're exhausted from running everyone's lives. Not to mention every "bad" emotion they feel is one more thing they need to control the world to fix in order to be ok.
The tyrant has no sense of their personal power. No relationships with others. No sense of their own humanity. No access to true peace and contentment. Around them, they have minions—forced servitude, and they can't forget it. They can't experience others' *desire* to show up for them; they experience love as a result of a successful demand. This is self-perpetuating insecurity.
The cure for the tyrant is ownership. Personal power. Existential acceptance. Nothing anyone can serve them. The tyrant must claim it for themselves, free themselves from the bonds of BEING the tyrant.
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