Authoritarian parties suppress reflection because thought exposes their arbitrariness.

Evidence

But in order that this faith be living and efficacious, it is necessary that no reflection mediatize the subjectivity of the chiefs and make it appear as such; if the chief considers that he does not simply reflect the given situation but that he is interpreting it, he becomes a prey to anguish: who am I to believe in myself? And if the soldier’s eyes open, he too asks: who is he to command me? Instead of a prophet, he sees nothing more than a tyrant. That is why every authoritarian party regards thought as a danger and reflection as a crime; it is by means of thought that crime appears as such in the world. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 108

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Links to my reading on elites using ideology to justify power; also to Darkness at Noon’s Roubatchov confession scene.