situation wherein a follower cannot rely on his or her reason or engage common sense to assess and judge the reality of things (think, Stalin or Hitler or Mao or Castro or Maduro or Kim). For this reason, the leader often presents arguments for his or her policies and actions
based on logical imaginings that exist beyond reason and thus must be accepted by others based on trust. This creates an environment whereby positions cannot be challenged or countered because followers believe only “the leader” has access to the “privileged” information that served as the premise of the “argument.”
More than the double-speak of George Orwell, the goal of this approach is to stop people from thinking at all. How did it/does it work? Being constantly bombarded by unsubstantiated propositions and nonsensical arguments, the mind is forced to spin and spin upon itself trying to make sense of the nonsense. Incapable of finding resolution, the mind finally shuts down rather than admit the very reason for its existence — namely, navigating a world based upon understanding issues and making choices — was itself meaningless. This it can’t do, so it instead chooses to embrace the reasoning of the unreasonable, in hope the terror will stop, the evil will disappear, and a person could go on living again. But it does not, leaving the leader free to actualize whatever policy he or she chooses.
And so, it is revealed that terror and terrorizing people underpins the cult of personality. It is through terrorizing minds, challenging the person’s ability to think and reason properly, that cult leaders reinforce fear in people’s minds. Making things up, constantly lying about circumstances, and denying things done, the leader keeps things moving in ways that keep people guessing about what was said, why it was said, or if it really was said. Constantly keeping people confused and fearful that they may be shown to have been
imposters all along, followers consistently buy into what the leader has to say because, as has been said, he or she is the only person with access to the truth. His or her word is Gospel, handed down through mystical threads that fill tapestries built from nothing but holes.
As for the belittling of others, it has two effects. The first effect plays upon supporters need to believe they are special and that others are fools, and that the leader understands through his and their common experience what it feels like to be mistreated and what needs to be done in remedy. Supporters thus feel good about themselves, feel as though they are part of a community. But the second effect is to reveal how empty that feeling and sense of community really is. Engaging in or laughing at the belittling of others is really an acknowledgement that at any time the leader may turn upon them, and they could find themselves in the same shameful position – something which every high school student has been introduced to if ever she or he chose to belong to a clique. Each is a sick psychic solipsistic interplay in which the leader creates an imaginary world to which he or she demands all others must conform or face the consequences, however dire.
In this case, the leaders people get are not the ones they deserve. Bound by fear or terrorized by circumstance, the contingencies of the world force people into electing and supporting
It is often said the electorate gets exactly the leaders they deserve. And there is a certain truth to that. But in many respects that is a cop out, because it absolves leaders of the one responsibility they owe the electorate by definition – to lead.
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