Tyrant

A tyrant is identified by the direction of flow and by nothing else. Anima runs from the masses to the idol, which is endosocial tyranny, and the counterpart is the martyr, an exo-ideal at the centre of a structure where anima runs outward from the idol to the group. Nothing about cruelty, legality or intention appears in the definition, which is consistent with Marsh's treatment of power generally, since power is never benevolent and never inert and is the result of active force extracting anima from others. The dependency runs the way most accounts miss. A cult is not created by a cult leader, since both the cult and the cult leader are created by the cult followers, and like a queen bee or ant the leader is produced rather than self-installed. The endo-ideal does not exist without reflection, so a tyrant is the product of reflectors and remains dependent on them, which is why the master is the slave to those whom they enslave and why a sublated person can become whole again relatively easily while the endo-ideal has the greater dependency. Marsh's answer to the puzzle of why tyrants are so hard to resist follows from this. It is not because they are strong but because the structure is held up by everyone in it, and security is derived from connection while power is derived from sublation and violation, which is why totalitarianism tries to eliminate all interactions it does not control.

Tyranny in classical political theory is rule in the ruler's own interest rather than the common good, following Aristotle, and Plato's account in the Republic traces the tyrant's rise from democracy. Modern work on authoritarianism studies both leaders and the followers who enable them, with Bob Altemeyer's authoritarian followers and Hannah Arendt's account of totalitarian movements both locating the phenomenon in the population as much as the figure. La Boetie's discourse on voluntary servitude made the same point in 1576. Marsh's version is closest to La Boetie and adds the energy account, since making the tyrant an idol constituted by reflectors accounts for the dependency rather than merely observing it.