Friday the 13th

I hate the idea of dictatorships but I have lived under them my entire life. Parents are dictators until a child reaches the age of majority. These are considered necessary and benevolent dictatorships but scrolling through a list of organizations fighting child abuse is mind numbing. My Church is a dictatorship. I do not get to vote for bishops or the Pope. I do not get a vote on doctrine or even if we should stand or kneel. I am theoretically free to abandon religion but the threat of losing my immortal soul is a powerful force. Followers of Jim Jones drank poison Kool-Aid when he prescribed it. My schools were dictatorships affiliated with my Church. The Jesuits were allowed to paddle me for infractions like chewing gum in high school. They could even designate other students to do the paddling. Caught between dictatorships, my options were severely limited. My wife is the cleverest of dictators because she gives me the illusion of thinking I have a vote in our marriage. My employers have been dictators. They determined my salary, hours, and benefits. I was hired into non union jobs, so my vote was take it or leave it. I had the freedom to be unemployed or join a different dictatorship. I am a fairly powerless citizen in engagements with bureaucracies that control my daily life. But I do have a vote in choosing leaders who make the laws. I get to vote for some judges and for various propositions and referendums. That right has always been a psychological comfort as a lone individual in a scary world. In recent years even that limited power has come under attack. I should be acclimated to dictatorships but even a glimpse at the possibility of another one is terrifying.