Since the beginning, history has foretold of America’s struggle against and its triumph over tyrannical leaders. Starting with the revolutionary war against King George III and dragging its way into the world wars against dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini, history, quite ironically, might demonstrate that the US will become that which it worked so hard to prevent: a dictatorship.

From Vladimir Putin in Russia to the Kim dynasty in North Korea and the rule of Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, approximately 25% of the world is at the mercy of dictatorial brutality; and the numbers are on the rise. We have to, at some point or another, come to realize that it’s very childish to think for a moment that America may never fall into that percentage. 

The left seems to envision the rise of the far-right in recent years as constituting the end of the nightmarish vision that George Orwell’s 1984 had foreseen for the future of mankind, and the right concluding that as we progress towards the vision of equality of outcome, the more and more we degrade morally and culturally which will result in mass nihilism amongst the majority.     Unfortunately, I don’t think either side of the political spectrum understands just how right they both are.

 What’s to give birth to our first dictator, will be our culture. It is perfect for shaping a young mind into that of a dictator. Dictators, like everyone else, are shaped by early childhood experiences. Sensitive children, who are highly responsive to their environment and emotions, are at risk for developing a predisposition towards a totalitarian mindset. If their environment is negative, riddled with conflict, abuse, and neglect, they will develop negative traits and skills such as gaining power through conflict and fantasize about a world that revolves around them.

               What made dictators like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin so appealing to the people, was the fact that both men were capable of revealing traumas that had deep roots in entire nations. Mainly, that Hitler brought to light the horrors of Germany’s acceptance of childhood abuse and Stalin exploiting the trend that, as a pastime, those in poverty would shame and extract entertainment out of the pain and suffering of those who were weaker in order to justify why it was alright to send millions to the Gulag. The ability to expose traumas at a collective level is a trait that is linked with high sensitivity personality types. 

This is why I stress the importance of reshaping our culture. Alarmingly, it’s similar, if not identical in certain aspects, to those environments that molds the temperament needed for a dictator. Suicide, child abuse, and ostracism, although taken seriously on a superficial level, it’s seldom that these problems would receive half the attention that racism, classism, and police brutality receive. Sensitive children will realize that society does not regard psychological issues as serious problems and will exploit the pretense of society by revealing that particular horrors are borne in concealment, and they will use the fact that certain horrors are borne in concealment to scapegoat humanity.

In addition, the fact that people damn near praise gang and drug violence, but the horrors of terrorism are often overtly shown, will also confuse the sensitive type of child. This double standard, as well as the fact that in our culture some forms of human suffering are entertaining to most, e.g. the public’s heartless fascination with the man who shot himself on Livestream and increases in child pornography on sex-related websites, will absolutely horrify the sensitive type of child. 

Which may, and I propose will produce heartless, self-righteous monsters who will speak to the hearts of millions of those who feel that their society abandoned them.