Even the freest and most successful civilizations in history are vulnerable to decline and revolution. The path to renewal is to resist the allure of ideology, propaganda, and scapegoating, and to instead recommit to truth. That will require courage to say what is true and to live what is true, despite the social cost.

In her book The Origins of Totalitarianism, German-American political theorist Hannah Arendt documented the rise of the Nazis within Germany and the Stalinists within the Soviet Union. Her analysis included identifying the preconditions that make the rise of totalitarianism possible. It is as helpful today as when she wrote it.

For example, the breakdown of traditional social institutions, such as family, community, and churches, precedes totalitarian control. The void left when people are rootless and disconnected from one another is often filled by bad ideas and authoritarian leaders that promise to fix everything.

Today, radical individualism is confused as the “American way of life” and is accelerated both by the collapse of these essential institutions and the siloing effect of digital technology. So, the idealized rugged, American individualism has devolved into what is more accurately called Expressive Individualism, in which our identity is determined in active rejection of outside influences.

In this view, autonomy is confused with dignity, in a rejection of the inherent relational realities of God’s design. Smartphones and social media provide the daily liturgies by which to define ourselves but cannot fill the void of connection that so many have. As a result, we have become a nation of activists, in which people attach to an online cause or social contagion. Such conformity is what is required for totalitarianism.

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