Generalized fear dissolves class divisions and political distinctions

Evidence

Behind the curious uniformity of method used by the supporters of all the candidates lay the tacit assumption that the electorate would go to the polls because it was frightened—afraid of the Communists, afraid of the Nazis, or afraid of the status quo. In this general fear all class divisions disappeared from the political scene; while the party alliance for the defense of the status quo blurred the older class structure maintained in the separate parties, the rank and file of the movements was completely heterogeneous and as dynamic and fluctuating as unemployment itself. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 663

Categorization

• XREF: This account of fear dissolving class structure into a heterogeneous movement rank-and-file parallels the toolkit concept of how exclusionary ideologies recruit across class lines. — connects to: Class difference persists even as class consciousness converges — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 193; The ruling class unites only through shared fear of the masses — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 495; Authoritarian society collapse widens psychic-structure differences between classes — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 551