Social Anxiety & Economic Existential Threats

"It's not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me." ~ Stephen Fry

"You have social media and the Internet and immigration and so, suddenly, cultures are clashing and people feel as if they're less familiar with the people around them. That causes social anxieties." ~ Barack Obama

Whenever your society is stressed, especially chronic or existential stress, there are some psychological, cultural, and systemic forces that make it vulnerable to the start of authoritarian, narcissistic, and demagogic leaders.

Social stress typically results from economic challenges like recessions, unemployment, inflation, tariffs, cultural change of immigration, gender role changes, racial justice movements, loss of world status as a declining empire, military overextension, cost of never-ending proxy wars, world's largest debt, an annual trillion dollar military budget, perceived moral decline, and technological upheaval due to automation and artificial intelligence, social media, surveillance.

These events have the capacity to produce collective anxiety and insecurity.

The comfortable foundations of your life are changing, which makes you long for certainty, order, and simplicity; sociopolitical and psychological - as needs for an authoritarian figure are good at identifying and capitalizing on by offering apparently simple solutions, a sense of direction, and the promise of stability, and a glorious wealthy future.