Cowardice Breeds Tyrants

 

This is a great post. How many people started out like this? They perform an incredible acts of service, they go above and beyond the call of duty, and in return all they want is something simple and reasonable, which often times is well within the power and rights of the entity they performed the act of service for, and what happens? 

They're denied. 

I've seen this happen in the military many times. An airmen went above and beyond, then asked his leadership for something simple in return, and what happens? It gets denied, and very rarely does it get denied for an appropriate reason. Leadership always made up some nonsense as to why they couldn't do it, when really they were just terrified to ask the people above them, or, if leadership had the power to honor the airmen's request, they were too scared to do it because someone, somewhere, might think less of them.

In the case of Anakin, he became a dictator. "This is BS! I'm going to rise to power, create a whole tyrannical empire, so something like this NEVER happens again!" When all they had to do was free his mother from slavery.

Obviously, no system is perfect, but the point I'm trying to make here, is if someone has the power to reward good behavior, then they should do it, and stop being so scared of what might happen. 

We as humans can somehow convince ourselves the most statistically improbable outcomes will almost certainly occur and use that to logic ourselves into taking no action. Stop.

Cowardice breeds dictators.