Listened to a summary of The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt.  It’s from 1951, but relevant today.  (“how quickly a democratic society can turn against its people”.)

What I took from this digest is how atomisation, isolation and disenfranchisement are fertile grounds for totalitarianism.  Without community and society you lose your sense of self and become easy prey for messages of totalitarianism.  Someone will come along and claim to represent you, and give an outlet for diesenfranchisement.

Once in a totalitarian society, people disengage from analytical and political thought.  The only thing that matters is the leader’s vision for the future.  Challenges to that vision are twisted to be from an enemy trying to mislead the public.