Well, who’d have thunk it?

As a writer, I give drafts of stories to people who aren’t afraid to tell me all the things I don’t want to hear about them, but need to.

A critique session can be brutal, but it’s also the best way to ensure I hear everything I need to hear in order to produce the best story I can.

It’s a little like world events, if you think about it.

As a fantasy writer I’ve developed an interest in historical world events, particularly the rise and fall of empires. Or more to the point, why those empires rose and fell.

Recent world events, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has shifted that focus to the present day.

Over the last few years I’ve watched world leaders stumble through the same issues historical figures faced. More specifically, we’re all watching the rise (such as China) and fall (such as Russia) of empires playing out.

Russia’s power peaked during the Cold War, and it’s been a nation in decline ever since. Today, it’s a corrupt mafia state, and even if it wins in Ukraine its heading towards collapse.

China’s rise has also peaked, and it could have been a great country, but if you know what to look for you can see it’s already facing the same problems Russia’s facing, though it’s not as far along that path.

When President Kennedy resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis, he took the same approach good writers take to their writing (asking people to poke holes in their stories).

In Kennedy’s case, he did it by telling his cabinet members to challenge every proposal and decision they came up with – that each of them had to play Devil’s Advocate. That way, they weeded out the flawed ideas and poor strategic thinking, and eventually implemented a solution that worked.

Authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping among others, or any number of historical figures like Hitler, do things entirely differently. They already know what’s best, and don’t like to be challenged on it. This leads to poor decision-making that can cost millions of lives.

When authoritarian leaders take power, they consolidate their power by placing loyalists (instead of the most qualified or competent people who might otherwise challenge them) into positions of authority, who then do the same with the positions underneath them.

This, of course, creates incompetence at scale and allows corruption to flourish as it’s done in Russia and China. The only payoff is that it ensures nobody challenges the nation’s dictator. It’s also very short sighted and almost always leads to political and/or national upheaval.

Historically, once a dictator has consolidated power, they silence dissent by controlling what people hear, and undermining or removing all opposition to their rule. They don’t mind using force to do it, either. You can see this playing out in countries like China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, among others.

The result is an echo chamber where the leader only hears what they want to hear – that everything’s great and all their decisions are brilliant – because it’s never in a loyalist’s interests to tell them anything different (unless they want to get shafted).

Can you imagine how well that system would have worked during the Cuban Missile Crisis? I wonder if any of us would be alive now if Kennedy had surrounded himself with loyalists instead of people who challenged him.

So ask yourself this. What is Donald Trump doing right now? Is he surrounding himself with people who challenge him, or is consolidating power by surrounding himself with loyalists who tell him what he wants to hear?

Scary thought, isn’t it?