Identity Politics and the Road to Authoritarianism

Politics in America is becoming ever more polarizing. We are expected to fall in one extreme camp or another. The collective is king. “You are either with us or against us…and your silence is agreement.” This is classic identity politics.

Identity politics is a crucial step on the road towards authoritarianism. In order to have complete obedience from a people, individual freedom of thought and action must be placed in subjection to the desires of the collective. Identity politics facilitates this process by convincing individuals that they belong to a collective, sharing mutual desires and concerns. To aid in this effort, flames of fear and hatred, already inherent to the individual, are fanned in a direction that suits the collective. The collective then claims to have a solution, but only lacks the necessary power to make it possible. Desperate for a solution, the individual willingly hands over their freedom of thought and action.

The Jewish-German philosopher, Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), was a refugee from Nazi Germany.  She spent the rest of her life trying help herself and others understand how everyday people can be complicit with atrocities that accompany totalitarian regimes.  The result was her work titled, "The Origins of Totalitarianism."  Roger Berkowitz is a scholar of Arendt's work and interviewed here.  In the interview, Berkowitz explains how we are drawn to identity politics because we "actually prefer a lying world of consistency that upholds our sense of purpose and meaning in our movement and our identity, than the messiness of reality, which actually makes us feel unmoored from any meaning and purpose in life."

The Left's ongoing complicity with Trump and the Right in the falsification of reality is hindering productive public discourse. As the conversation continues to break down and drift from reality, the more likely we will see a totalitarian ideology take power in our time.

How do we fight identity politics? First, acknowledge one’s own fears and hatred. Second, be on guard against collectives that will try to use our fears toward their own ends. Finally, practice valuing and respecting one another. This means we ought not to assume the worst in one another. Through this, we rob the many collectives in the world of their primary tool for gaining power.