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More Thoughts on Authoritarianism [1]
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Date: 2025-02-12
After I posted this, Tiger Red asked an excellent question: Any thoughts on how/why your parents developed this mindset?
Several reasons:
They were catholic, which is a highly authoritarian religion.
They went to public school in the 1920s, when the US educational system was strongly influenced by the Prussian model: training in critical thinking for the children of the elite, training in obedience for the rest.
I wasn’t expected to live at birth and benefited from a then-new technique with a 50% success rate. Fear makes people more inclined to unquestioningly obey.
I’d like to expand on this.
Authoritarian Religion
Prior to Gutenberg’s printed Bible, copies were few and far between, largely in the hands of senior clergy. The pope, consulting with the College of Cardinals, determined doctrine and handed it down to the faithful. The printing press made Bibles available to the rising merchant class and opened the door to personal interpretation of Holy Writ. This led, in short order, to the Protestant Reformation and the establishment of numerous churches. The Founders, Thomas Jefferson, in particular, felt that personal interpretation of the Bible trained the mind in what we now call “executive function,” i.e. decision-making skills, that provided the mental tools required for democratic self-rule.
“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.”
he opined, discussing the possibility of Latin American colonies acquiring democratic rule.
—Letter to celebrated scientist Alexander von Humboldt, 6 December, 1813
But over time, certain Protestant religions have themselves become dogmatic, discouraging independent thought and replacing it with blind, authoritarian obedience based upon fear of eternal damnation, shunning, and loss of social status. MAGA, you may have noticed, has found fertile ground in such establishments. As Upton Sinclair predicted, Fascism has come to America wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. It’s called Christian Nationalism.
Public Education
Public education was the Founders’ pride and joy. They envisioned a nation of yeoman farmers: literate, engaged in their communities, fiercely protective of their rights. It was probably easier for gentlemen planters to imagine that, than for said farmers, working to exhaustion each day, to actually carry it out. We’ve lost that excuse, and substituted TV, internet surfing, and video games as our excuse for not paying attention.
And there’s the right wing attempt to dominate public education, whether through book bans and anti-DEI/CRT campaigns or school vouchers, a thinly-veiled upper class subsidy.
And here’s another factor: due to the acquisition of small local media by national networks owned by right wing billionaires, Americans, particularly those in rural areas, have a limited and highly biased information set. Their politics follow.
Fear
Frank Herbert nailed it in Dune, “Fear is the mind killer.” Like my parents, who slavishly followed the doctor’s bad advice, terrified that doing otherwise would harm me (while damn near killing me) people motivated by fear will obey. This is behind Trump’s deliberately chaotic rule, designed to create existential fear. Will my Social Security check come? How will I pay for insulin? If Medicaid goes away, will my local hospital close?
“Be afraid. Be very afraid, then do what we tell you in the hope that we’ll be nice to you in return.” Don’t bet on it. The asks will keep getting bigger and the rewards increasing stingy.
Power corrupts. Don’t give it to them.
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