Birth of the fascist: How the neurotic authoritarian reacts to economic stress

 

    This essay will revisit several points introduced in earlier essays in this series, and attempt to refine and expand on the issue of how the neurotic authoritarian deals with the stress of financial hardship. Whereas the last three essays in this series dealt with the initial economic insult that creates the potential for a fascist movement to grow, this essay deals with the internal response that the neurotic authoritarian has to that financial hardship. We must remember that in order for a fascist movement to occur, there must be four elements present: first, there must be some kind of economic stress that causes people to actually suffer, or at least perceive (due to anxiety or propaganda) a decline in their standard of living; second, there must be an audience of individuals who possess latent authoritarian tendencies; third, there must be a political agitator, who provides the grievance narratives necessary to fuel the "ego maintenance" process; finally, there must be a loyal band of lieutenants, and the presence of some form of mass media that the agitator can use to amplify his propaganda.  The remainder of this essay will deal specifically with the followers in a movement, rather than the political agitator who leads them through their development from neurotic-authoritarian to full blown fascist. The traits of the political agitator who leads the movement will be described in later essays. 

    There are a number of behavioral traits associated with individuals who possess authoritarian tendencies. For this essay we are using the list of authoritarian traits developed by a team of American Jewish Committee researchers led by Theodore Adorno. (Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N., 1950). Those researchers, sought to study the behaviors and traits that made someone susceptible to fascist propaganda, in hopes that something like the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany would never happen again. Those behavioral traits may be summarized as:

"(a) prejudice (negative attitudes towards the other),

(b) rigidity (closed-mindedness, dogmatic, black-and-white thinking),

(c) lack of sense of humor,

(d) self-abnegation (denial of one’s own impulses and avoidance of self-gratification, i.e., pleasure),

(e) fatalism (e.g., belief in astrology and mysticism)

(f) obedience and admiration of authority (also labeled suggestibility, conformity, passivity, and submissiveness), and

(g) low tolerance for uncertainty/ambiguity."

(Winarick, 2018).  

    To this list we can add "a natural proclivity towards adopting a paranoid style of rhetoric, and receptiveness to statements made in the paranoid style".  The phrase "the paranoid style" comes from an essay by historian Richard Hofstedter. Hofstedter described, "...the central preconception of the paranoid style [as] the existence of a vast, insidious, preternaturally effective international conspiratorial network designed to perpetrate acts of the most fiendish character." (Hofstedter, 1963) While Hofstedter readily admitted that the paranoid style was not absolutely unique to right-wing propaganda, it is far more prevalent in reactionary right-wing messaging. During the presidential campaign that led up to the 2016 Presidential Election, Trump made a variety of ad populum appeals where he sought to portray his followers as the victim of a relentless international conspiracy of "international banksters", politically correct academics and feckless politicians who failed to watch out for and protect the people of the United States. (Mercieca, J., 2020) All of the ad populum arguments used by Trump can be readily classified as examples of the paranoid style. Conspiracy theories are, by definition, examples of the paranoid style, and recent examples that have grown to prominence within the Republican Party include Jade Helm, Pizzagate and "Q". Conspiracy theories perform a clarifying function for the neurotic authoritarian. Real life tends to involve complex issues and explanations; there is too much complexity and ambiguity for the neurotic authoritarian's limited attention span. Conspiracy theories toss aside long-winded explanations in favor of an over-simplified binary narrative that attributes negative events to the malevolence of disfavored out groups, and provide a simplified narrative where the neurotic authoritarian is a victim of the greed and callousness of others. 

    When first encountering the stress of an economic hardship such as loss of a good paying factory job, the authoritarian is unable to take productive action right away. His coping mechanism will typically include an extended period of time where he envelops himself in a cocoon of right-wing propaganda, and insists that his job loss was the result of a conspiracy between Jewish bankers, Asian businessmen and Mexican immigrants. Any attempt to explain the rotation of points of production and consumption, and that those behaviors are not specific to any one racial or racial group but is put in motion by a collection of CEOs and corporate shareholders is met with sneering derision. While the authoritarian is happy to blame minorities, academics and public figures who have voiced an interest in liberal political causes, he steadfastly avoids any discussion of culpability in those industries that have been long term donors to the Republican Party. If Microsoft opens a customer service center in India, the conservative accuses, "they just don't want to pay Americans to do those jobs!" If Exxon closes a US refinery and moves operations overseas, the conservatives insists "they ain't got no choice because of all them job killing government regulations!" 

    The authoritarian's finger-pointing and conspiracy theory mongering will also be interspersed with healthy doses of self-pity "What the hell am I gonna do?  I can't do nothin' else! I thought I was gonna work at that factory until I was old enough to retire!" An overwhelming fecklessness is a common feature of individuals with authoritarian tendencies. The right-wingers complaints that "the problem is ain't nobody wants to work no more!" and "people need to get up off their asses and learn to take some personal responsibility," are classic examples of projection, and descriptions of his own worst traits. When finally forced by the looming end of benefit payments to go out and find work, the authoritarian struggles with everything. He is angry that he can't fill out a paper job application and has to use an online application. His knowledge of the internet is often limited to logging into his Facebook page, which may have been set up for him by a family member or public librarian. "Why do they have to make everything so complicated" is his constant refrain. When he tries to fill out job applications online, he rapidly scrolls through pages, doesn't bother to read all of the information on the screen, then gets angry when he can't figure out how to complete the process. The notion of slowing down, taking the time to gather all information, and work through everything in a step-wise fashion is completely foreign to him.¹

    The experience of financial stress alone is not enough to turn someone into a fascist. In order for radicalizing propaganda to have an impact, the individual must possess a series of latent authoritarian traits. The list of traits summarized above was derived from the work of the American Jewish Committee in the 1950s, the goal of that committee was to make sure that something like the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany could never happen again. Fascist propaganda tends to employ a "paranoid style" of rhetoric, and is focused on the existence of vast international conspiracies aimed at causing harm to the average working man. When he first encounters an economic hardship, the neurotic authoritarian is unable to take immediate action to try to improve his situation in life. He must first immerse himself in a bubble of propaganda and conspiracy theories, where he will ascribe his misfortune to conspiratorial actions by a variety of outgroups, with those out-groups frequently including Jews, Asians, Mexicans, African-Americans, academics and liberals. The neurotic authoritarian will also engage in endless self-pity: constantly complaining over everything that's changed since the last time he had to look for work, and whining that everything is "so complicated", as he constantly fails to take the time to slow down and read the directions. 

    This essay described some of the behavioral symptoms associated with the neurotic authoritarian's radicalization. The next essay in the series will describe how the amplification of certain behavioral tendencies constitutes the development of an idealego reaction formation, as described by psychologists Henry A. Murray and Gordon W. Allport in their analysis of the personality of Adolph Hitler. 

Footnotes

1. While working on this project, I have engaged in discussions with both public librarians and job        developers, who frequently have to assist individuals in filling out online job applications and creating    PDF copies of their resume. Those individuals asked that they not be named in this essay. 

Works Cited

Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The authoritarian         personality. Harpers.

Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Addison-Wesley.

Hofstedter, R. (1963). The paranoid style in American politics and other essays. University of Chicago     Press. 

Mercieca, J. (2020). Demagogue for President: the rhetorical genius of Donald Trump. Texas A&M     University Press. 

Murray, A., M.D. (1943). Analysis of the personality of Adolph Hitler. Harvard Psychological Clinic. 

Winarick, D. J. (2018, November). Academic Psychology, Antifascism, and Authoritarianism. In     PsychologyToday. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/personality-    quotient/201811/academic-psychology-antifascism-and-authoritarianism

If you enjoyed this essay
please consider picking up 
a copy of my book

now available in the Kindle store 

Image Credit: Detail of the painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymous Bosch. 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights