Our nation is in a downward spiral. Though the economy is doing well, the rest of the nation isn't. We have a President who continually searches for more power in ways that are similar to how dictators use power. The price of some of our economic success will incur future bills, not just one bill, that will be too high to pay. And like our nation's wealth disparity, the divisions between the highly politically partisan population continues to grow. And though all of those problems are reversible, the most important group of Americans show that there is no will to change course.
Before going on, we should remember that after WW II, leading academics studied the most important question: Why did most Germans remain so loyal to Hitler? One of the factors that came from their study was writings on the observation of an authoritarian personality type (discussed here and signs of the personality there). The passive form of that personality type is marked by blind loyalty to selected authority figures, showing hostility toward those who disagree with selected authority figures, 'negative view of people,' an attraction to 'strong leaders' and power, the tendency to overly simplify reality, a black-white view of reality, a penchant for projecting one's anger on others, and being too focused on power and sex.
Obviously one does not have to have all of those traits to have an authoritarian personality type, but we should note that the reasons why, when enough of the people exhibit having an authoritarian personality type, those traits led Germans to stay loyal to Hitler and why those traits could drive us Americans to hang on and submit too much to our own leaders.
Though initial studies in the authoritarian personality type singled out conservatives, later studies adjusted for the acknowledgement that people on the left could also display this type of personality.
Why we Americans have no hope is that too many of us, from libertarians to conservatives to liberals to leftists, not only display this personality type, we embrace it and some of us have adopted it as our preferred form of spirituality. It isn't just Trump supporters who cling to an authoritarian personality type, it can be seen among liberals especially those who supported, and still do, Hillary Clinton. And last but not least, neither libertarians nor leftists have escaped this scourge of a personality type.
Besides the links this personality had to those Germans who clung to Hitler during WW II, we should note from the description and list of traits of this personality type how those with this personality type would be hard pressed to be able to adequately adapt to the changing conditions of what we call life in a nation.
And though we can easily see a growing authoritarianism in both our leaders and those from many other parts of the world, that is not the red flag that signals our ominous end. That red flag is flown when too many everyday people succumb to the siren call of an authoritarian personality type. And how ironic it is that in the 'land of the free and home of the brave,' we find ourselves to be unable to adequately adjust to our nation's everyday changes.
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