An authoritarian is only as powerful as their followers. Every authoritarian in history ultimately fell, it is not sustainable yet it destroys millions of lives.
YOU need self-esteem. Yes, you read that right.
Authoritarians and propagandists thrive in fear. They want you dumb enough to think you’re a perpetual victim, while endowing you with faux bravado. And if you’re a so called “alpha” this article you’re now reading will sting, but you should be all right. Afterall alphas are not thin skinned, are they? If you get mad, then your entire alpha personality was just a veneer, and THAT is exploitable.
The best way to make a person think they are in control is by convincing them they are “superior” to whatever is it that they are supposed to be against. Enter the so-called alphas. When you see any type of enraged people who are “taking aggressive action” against others, what type of personality do you think they have? The self-proclaimed alphas. Why do you think is that? Because they are the “muscle” the authoritarian needs to push a divisive rhetoric into action.
When people are emotionally driven to action, and think they can fight their way out of it, even if that means subjugating others. That breeds a culture of dehumanizing people. They will assume the role as “protectors” for their own group, and brag about being vindictive punishers for the dissention. In fact, it is actually very easy to be an alpha, it is a primal [animalistic] instinct thing to try to assert dominance. And the flip side to an alpha is not a “beta” – it is actually “maturity.”
Think about it, if you were a school bully, how well did that play in actual grown-up society? Not well, people might act as though they are intimidated to your face, but they are really laughing behind your back. They do. And that by the way creates a lot more friction, because in the so-called alpha’s mind, they feel they are being attacked. Or worse, their dissenters are questioning their authority, which is usually also a veneer of the level of entitlement they feel towards others. “How dare they not worship the alpha?”
When this misguided level of emotion gets exacerbated, then authoritarians can move the rhetoric into action, and that happens via usually an emotionally-biased person who thinks they are right and everybody else is wrong. If you’re a so called, alpha, did my words hurt your feelings? Be honest to YOURSELF, not to me.
The muscle to an authoritarian figure.
I wrote this article specifically on a provocative manner because I am proving a point. If you’re not compromised, then you might actually laugh and nod in agreement remembering some alpha type you tend to laugh about. If you’re an ex-alpha, then you’ll definitely laugh and appreciated the fact you’ve grown that phase.
Because that is what it is, it’s a phase. Much like teenagers have antics as they are trying to find the way they should fit into the world – the difference is that this can have regression, based on the way biases may be individually exploited. That is why a few articles ago I spoke about biases. Biases can wake up terrible feelings of inadequacy, and these can be very traumatic. That leads to “overcompensating.”
A lot of very aggressive people are simply a façade, they know they are not quite in charge, and hence they will go off the deep end if their “authority” is challenged – even a little bit. The psychology of brainwashing alpha types is actually well documented and we can speak for hours on that. But I’ll leave you with this.
There are “alpha-training” groups who will charge other “alpha-men” to the tune of $18,0000 to $20,000+ to have a bigger self-proclaimed alpha yell at them while rolling up in mud. The students are not military, no – they are business people who apparently achieving maturity was not good enough, and need somebody’s external validation.
If you need to pay to become a so called “alpha-man” – your life is not that bad, but you are probably vulnerable to exploitation. You need to learn to appreciate yourself before you try to gain validation for anybody else. We all want to fit in, but don’t let the person living between your ears tell you you’re not good enough. We are all capable of being better than the person we were yesterday.
Real life has a lot more conflict, and it takes actual maturity and temperance to succeed. This takes experience, and yes, the set backs are part of this learning process. I can tell you that as a 20-year veteran in the U.S. Navy. The “tough alpha crowd” folded like a deck of cards when push came to shove, the mature group were always more resilient. That’s true strength – authoritarians don’t like the latter. Because their volatile emotions are not exploitable as to become the muscle to a “strong leader.” HLC