this content is made possible by individuals like you become a supporting member and access our growing library of membership courses and videos learn more about our membership at URL_TOKEN members authoritarianism in religion and science let alone politics is becoming increasingly accepted not particularly because so many people explicitly believe in it but because they feel themselves individually powerless and anxious so what else can one do except follow the mass political leader or follow the authority of customs public opinion and social expectations the american psychologist rolo may wrote these words in NUMBER_TOKEN and in the decades that followed the west tiptoed into tyranny a mass surveillance state was established free speech gave way to increasing levels of censorship statist bureaucracy and stifling regulations invaded ever more areas of life and tax rates reached levels that in the past would have caused a revolution however in recent years this tiptoe into tyranny has turned into a sprint as some western countries are flirting with full-blown totalitarian rule but the existence of power-hungry and psychologically disturbed politicians who desire total control is not what makes our situation particularly precarious for such individuals exist in all ages rather our troubles lie with the fact that very few people possess the one virtue that can turn the tide back in the direction of freedom that being the virtue of courage and as alexander solzhenitsyn warned in NUMBER_TOKEN a decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the west in our days should one point out that from ancient times declining courage has been considered the beginning of the end in this video we are going to explore how a hyper conformity in blind obedience has infected the west and in the process crowded out the cultivation of courage we will discuss how a widespread cowardice is permitting the rise of authoritarianism and how a rebirth of courage is the antidote to our precarious political predicament the pathological conformity that infects the west is generations in the making and the result of a confluence of factors it is driven by a value system in which social validation occupies a preeminent position it is furthered by the use of social media and the fact that success on these platforms is achieved by virtue signaling and conforming to the moral flavors of the day it is also a product of an education system which deifies the democratic ideal and promotes the rights of the majority over the rights of the individual these factors combined with others has created a society of hyper conformis and as rolo may explained the opposite to courage in our particular age is automaton conformity one of the ways that western conformity manifests is through a blind obedience and a pathological need to follow rules most people believe that to be a good person is to be a compliant person and to do what one is told by those in positions of political power and their lackeys in the media and celebrity culture in acting with blind obedience the conformist fails to differentiate between morality and legality and so remains willfully ignorant of the fact that government rules can be immoral driven by corruption and that sometimes they pave the way for individual and social ruin or as rolo may explains our particular problem in the present day is an overwhelming tendency toward conformity in such times ethics tend more and more to be identified with obedience one is good to the extent that one obeys the dictates of society it is as though the more unquestioning obedience the better but what really is ethical about obedience if one's
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