08-06-2020, 11:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-06-2020, 07:16 PM by Eric the Green.)
(08-05-2020, 04:59 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: I have long thought authoritarianism is tied to the Agricultural Age approach of kings. Leaders like Hitler and Stalin took the newer industrialism, but left the culture more inclined to stick with kings by another name. There is an argument between autocracy and democracy. The argument between Republicans and Democrats is just a smaller difference within a democracy. Both the Republicans and Democrats ought to reject the Hitlers and Stalins of the world.
I have begun to suspect that the recent popularity of authoritarianism is a 3T trait. At least in America, a crisis where it is recognized that Trump is not the way to go might purge authoritarianism. I am thus not so sure that authoritarianism is on the rise as the thread name suggests. Ask me again after the election and it's aftermath.
It seems historically to be a 4T trait as well, at least until the progressive faction wins out.
In the French Revolution 4T, though, the progressive faction won and then became too authoritarian and was itself deposed. But the Revolution did have some lasting results and progressive changes that survived in the long run.
In America, there were plenty of tories that supported the King during the Revolution. In the 1850s and 1860s 4T, of course, the South supported the authority of slavery and the plantation system. By the 1930s, the turnings are more consistent across the world, as we have become a world civilization and the "clocks" are synchronizing. We saw the rise of the Nazis and fascists very prominently. And the New Deal was in some respects tending toward authoritarianism in its collectivist emphasis, or at least a much stronger government.
Now, this author speaks of the rise in authoritarianism in the USA, but also in Europe and other places. It has certainly been rising. In the USA though, and in the anglo-american saeculum cycle, the progressive side has always won out.
We are seeing a trend that I predicted using the astrocycles of increasing authoritarianism in this era. But I also predict a progressive era for the 2020s. So, stay tuned.