Beating Authoritarianism Isn’t as Simple as You Think. It’s Even Simpler

Three Lessons of History We’ve Forgotten

umair haque
Eudaimonia and Co
Published in
7 min readJun 17, 2018

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Kids in camps. Congressmen who can’t get access to them. A President denying it’s happening. What’s happening to us? We’ve forgotten three key lessons of history.

Beating authoritarianism isn’t as simple as you think. It’s even simpler. Yes, really. Not easy, mind you, convenient, comfortable, a walk in the park. But simple, as in undo the cause, undo the effect. There’s no need to overthink it — to endlessly look for nuance, as if there are a million beautiful and subtle shades of grey among dictatorships. That is a way to prove how smart we are — but it does less than nothing to beat the bad guys. In fact, overthinking it, we end up paralyzed and powerless, which is where we are now, a point I’ll return to. Let’s start here.

Authoritarianism arises in broken societies. Just how broken is America? The average American doesn’t have $500 in emergency savings, his life expectancy’s fallng, he’ll never retire, he lives with a mountain of debt, and his income’s shrinking. Inequality is higher than ancient Rome, trust has collapsed, social bonds have imploded along with towns, villages, and cities, some of which don’t have basic utilities like water, the polity is badly dysfunctional, and so on. America is a portrait of the rich world’s first failed state.

Now. We have never once seen authoritarianism arise in a working society — one where people are prosperous. I’ll get to why. First, go ahead and think about. Weimar Germany? Of course not — it was badly broken, thus Hitler. Post-Soviet Russia? Nope — life was plummeting downwards, hence Putinism. China? Nope — there were mass famines, hence Maoism. Authoritarianism arises in broken societies — there is absolutely no need to overthink it, which is a kind of denial, but to only to see: is the society we live in broken?

Here’s a simple test to use. Are real incomes falling? If so, we are more than likely to going to see authoritarian current rise, and maybe rise all the way to the top. Just like we do in America.

People turn to authoritarians for a sense of safety and strength when they feel weak and defeated. Why is it that every single American pundit — from Ezra…

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