Charismatic leaders exploit threat to create scapegoats and bring evil into being.

Evidence

Throughout history, leaders have fueled the process of scapegoating by confidently trumpeting grand visions of heroic triumph over supposedly evil others, and promising that the elimination of the evildoers will create a heaven on earth. This influence of larger-than-life political and religious figures is particularly potent when cultures confront direct threats to their identity and security. Following World War I, with the German people facing severe social and economic downturn, Hitler’s rousing speeches and message of the superiority of the German race over subhuman vermin infecting their society – such as Gypsies and the Jews – helped elevate the meaningfulness of life and self-worth of the Aryan majority, giving them a common enemy to revile and destroy while paving the blood-soaked path to the Holocaust. As Becker pointed out, attempting to escape from evil by following charismatic leaders is ironically the primary way in which humans bring evil into existence. — Jeff Greenberg and Spee Kosloff, Terror Management Theory, 59

Categorization

• BMF: The claimed irony that escaping evil by following charismatic leaders is how humans create evil echoes the logic of sacrificial victim-making in ‘Things Fall Apart’ or the collective death-myth construction in ‘White Noise’ — though the link to the offered list is loosest here; it more plausibly relates to 2001’s crowd-submersion theme.
• XREF: Connects to René Girard’s scapegoat mechanism and the sacrificial-victimage theory the reader tracks; also the broader terror-management argument that death anxieties are deferred onto constructed enemies. — connects to: Charismatic dictatorships inverted Weber’s claim that heroic leaders save passive masses. — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 14; Scapegoat movements exploit frustrated needs for esteem, belonging, and security.; Weak, nearby groups become scapegoats because aggressing against the powerful is unsafe — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 742 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Perpetrators of ideologically motivated aggression rationalize it by recasting victims as threats #expands (0.80) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 833
• Pre-existing devaluation and authority-worship predict a society’s turn to scapegoating #corroborates (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3978
• Scapegoat movements exploit frustrated needs for esteem, belonging, and security. #expands (0.78)
• Perceived threat to the group’s moral image triggers moral disengagement strategies and ranks closing. #expands (0.77) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2136
• Loyalty to a charismatic leader can override an accomplice’s own moral self-censure #expands (0.76) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 232
• Weak, nearby groups become scapegoats because aggressing against the powerful is unsafe #complicates (0.75) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 742
• Institutional evil requires a social psychology of how settings override members’ moral scruples #expands (0.74) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4030
• Revolutionary leaders who mistrust the people become oppressors themselves #exemplifies (0.73) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 528
• Evildoing is learned through socialization into harmful organizations #qualifies (0.72) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3969