Authoritarianism is like a Virus which Doesn’t Raise Temperatures but Rather Lowers Immunity, Nevzlin Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 7 – Surveying the spread of authoritarianism around the world, Leonid Nevzlin, a Russian commentator living in Israel, points to a fundamental fact of this development: Authoritarianism, he says, is like a virus which doesn’t raise the temperatures of those it infects but rather lowers their immunity to other things.

            That makes it especially dangerous because it isn’t like a rain that will eventually dry up on its own  but rather like a mold that will remain and allow other negative phenomena like corruption and xenophobia to grow and flourish unless people face up to it and fight it (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=686B8270A0B4D).                      

            Indeed, looking at the rise of authoritarianism both in Russia and in well-off Western countries, Nevzlin points out an unwelcome truth about why authoritarianism has made these advances and what may be an even more unwelcome truth about how it can be fought and   defeated.

            Today’s authoritarianism did not come “suddenly” to any of the countries, he points out. It arrived when the population “turns away” from politics. But there is ultimately good news: it is not eternal however much its leaders say but will go away, when the people return “to ourselves, to the truth and to action” against those who would strip everyone of their rights and freedoms.