> A short essay on authoritarianism arising from democratic societies. It is often said that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. This is as true in politics as it is in cattle herding. Those who live in oppression yearn for freedom; those who live in freedom yearn for oppression. When things go awry in a democratic society, when people feel they have been left behind by the ebbs and flows of economy and culture, there inevitably arises a belief that, one day, a great man will come, and he will restore things to their rightful order. He will imprison the criminals who now walk free; he will make unwelcome the neighbors they wish they did not have; he will keep the streets clean of filth, inanimate or otherwise; he will vanquish the corrupt elites who pull strings to suppress the popular will, *their* popular will; most of all, he will liberate the people from their angst. They will no longer feel the need to concern themselves with matters political, as the popular will has already been installed in power, and he has no bothersome checks or balances to overcome. Or, so the story goes. This angst is what consumes the mind of the budding authoritarian. Angst turns to fear, fear turns to anger, anger turns to resentment, resentment turns to violence. The collective authoritarian screams at its liberal peers, excoriating them for not acknowledging the fear, the anger, and the resentment that all served to build its identity - and the violence it must employ as a result. For the authoritarian is correct, its urges and emotions are real; what caused them, however, was an angst, an angst drawn out of it by those who did not care for it, an angst originating from that deep, human disquiet at living an unremarkable life. The collective is, of course, a facade; each authoritarian is an individual feeding the machine with their own body and their own mind. And the individual believes this: that they will absolve their unremarkability by joining in with the great movement, and yet their lives will remain the same, unmolested by the excesses for which they clapped and cheered. They believe that it will not be their names being called by the great leader at the great assembly, for they are no legislators, and certainly, they are no criminals. They believe that the glorious solution will be enacted in a faraway place, out of sight and out of mind. They believe that their creature comforts will not be called into question, nor their identity, nor their beliefs, nor their loyalty. They believe that when they step on the train, they will know where it is going. Few of them are correct. --- > *Published July 31st, 2026.*