The Breakdown of the Authoritarian Social Order

Some of the most important events in history have happened without anyone taking notice of them. One such example was the abrupt transformation and degradation of American society from authoritarian to anti-authoritarian that occurred around the middle of the 20th century, an event that has had catastrophic effects on Western Society..

There is a fundamental difference in the way that the transformation is regarded by people who belong on the political Left and the Right. While those on the Left have no sense at all of what has happened, those on the Right are aware of bits and pieces of it such as the breakdown of the traditional family, the rise in human destructiveness in all areas of social life and so on, but are unable to have a comprehensive picture of it and why it occurred. Their typical response is to decry what has happened and to pine for “the good old days” when authorities existed and the authoritarian order was intact. A good example is the article, “Youth Has Outlived Its Usefulness” by Peggy Noonan in the July 17-18 edition of The Wall Street Journal, in which the author laments the fact that there no longer exist elder statesmen in today’s world to advise and guide the inexperienced, young politicians on the political stage today on how to govern.

What Ms. Noonan does not recognize is that we live in an anti-authoritarian social order. As a result, the traditional role of males, especially older males, as authority figures worthy of respect, trust and loyalty has been completely thrown by the wayside. It has been replaced by the glorification and blind faith in the powers of youth to save the world. The biologically-based psychological origins of these social events are discussed in my forthcoming book, Neither Left Nor Right.