Around the globe, contemporary authoritarian regimes have become more effective at circumventing the norms and institutions meant to support basic human liberties. Even in countries with long-established democracies, authoritarian forces are distorting national politics to promote hatred, violence, and unbridled power.

Authoritarianism uses and abuses people. It destroys human freedom to think, to act, and to live. It manipulates people and eliminates the “undesirables.”

The historical Jesus stressed that human greatness is based on compassion and service. His use of authority was to motivate people and to heal, support, and call to conversion. Jesus did not use authority to control people but to empower them.

Contemporary cultural change and human migration make some people anxious and fearful. They feel threatened. They neither hear nor understand the words of the American author Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) inscribed on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Instead, they prefer to build their walls, to protect “us against them.” In ignorance, fear, and anxiety they surrender to the exaggerated rhetoric and growing influence of authoritarian leaders. 

Authoritarianism is becoming a contemporary leadership problem. “Leaders” who should be trusted for wisdom, intelligence, and humanitarian service are becoming hard-nosed autocrats, surrendering to the psychological and mental disorder of authoritarianism.

Honesty and integrity are being replaced by self-promoting deceit and dishonesty. Self-centered authoritarians are self-stroking and self-promoting. Life for them boils down to what one can get and what one can get away with. Life for them, is jungle warfare in a world of lazy and evil “losers.”

Creeping authoritarianism is becoming a destructive and sinister social virus that shows itself in increased racial violence, increased anti-Semitism, extreme political and social polarization, and the rise of militant Neo-Nazi groups.

Authoritarian “leaders” can only succeed because because authoritarian followers applaud and support them. 

Much more so than the average person, authoritarian followers go through life with impaired thinking. Their reasoning is often sloppy and based on prejudiced beliefs and a fierce dogmatism, that rejects evidence and logic. 

Cognitive defects in authoritarian followers enable them to follow any would-be dictator. As Hitler reportedly said, “What good fortune for those in power that people do not think.”

So, what does one do?

• Well, we must first acknowledge that authoritarian followers are extremely resistant to change. The more one learns about authoritarianism, the more one realizes how difficult it will be to reach people who are so ferociously aggressive and fiercely defensive. Polarization is now extreme and deeply rooted.
• We need to educate and, starting at home with little children, promote a balanced education: (1) handing on authentic information, (2) teaching people where to find correct information, and (3) giving people the skills to be well-informed critical thinkers.
• Our Christian communities, more than ever, must become, in the Spirit of Christ, compassionate gatherings of multicultural, multi-ethnic, and all-gender, supportive friends.
• We need to courageously speak out and we need to help other people courageously speak out.
• If something is wrong or untrue, people need to strongly and clearly say that it is wrong or untrue. 
• Those who courageously speak out need the support of friends gathered around them. Going alone is increasingly difficult if not impossible in our cyber-linked world.
• We need to be on guard, as well, that we do not become promoters of polarization and vicious partisanship. We need to learn how to work together for the common good. 
• As Jesus said in Matthew (chapter 12): “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.”

Jack

Dr. John A. Dick – Historical Theologian