The Fragility of Democracy II: Covid Society

The Post Office Tower, London, June 2020

Authoritarianism arises as a response to a threat, real or perceived. More often than not, the threat finds fertile ground in reality: in 1930s Germany, economic hardship created the conditions for the rise of Nazism. Humans, vulnerable and dependent on others for their early survival longer than other mammals, scare easily. Key to our psychology and way of being in the world is our tendency to give our inner…