I'm interested in language and the inherent meaning in words.

Over the past ten years, we are embedded in a great societal lesson on the word "authoritarian".

Until witnessing this effect in action, I improperly understood this word. I used to believe that authoritarians were separate from the bulk of the population, and that 95% of us were subject to this small group of people.

The past three years in particular, however, have opened my eyes to how authoritarianism actually functions. It's far more basic than I realized, simply meaning "belief in authority or the authorities." Now I see that many of those I live with every day are natural authoritarians, and damned if they aren't very sweet and actually incredibly naive people. Authoritarianism happens when trusting people are scared. They are presented with a problem (either real or manufactured), and when told that "the authorities" have the solution, they believe what they are told. They believe we all must do [X] in order to resolve the problem, because that's what "the authorities" tell us. This particular go-round, "the authorities" have been dressed up in doctors coats, making them the "medical authorities". We are currently in the process of transitioning to the "climate authorities".

The effect is horrific, with seemingly sweet and naive people suddenly turning into monsters willing to inflict horrors on their neighbors, all with the knowledge they are "doing the right thing," and thus with a self-superior smile upon their faces.

I close by recommending once again (I've said this many times over the past few years) the movie Brazil, by Terry Gilliam. He captures this twisted feature of how authoritarianism works in a way that none of the other great works on the subject did. Authoritarians go home and sweetly tuck their children into bed at night, and they never see the contrast between their actions and their ideals.

The past three years have been one hell of a lesson to watch this happen at truly global scale.