People become fully grown adults the moment they realize that their parents don’t have all the answers. It’s a scary realization but it’s one that everybody has to come to terms with. A properly functioning society is one composed of adults who have accepted the inevitable ambiguity and uncertainty of life, and put their best foot forward in the face of it.
Unfortunately, history tells us that this is usually not the case. In fact, there’s strong evidence to suggest that human beings naturally want to be guided by a strong leader. Dating back to Freud’s theory of the “father complex”, the psychological community has strongly speculated that people are heavily inclined to long for an involved “father figure” to serve as their protector. Carl Jung took it a step further to suggest that we continuously look for parts of the father archetype in the outside world to fill the void that remains after we leave our childhood homes. This is what some people might call “daddy issues”. He called this phenomenon “parent hunger”. Ideally, a responsible adult is meant to fill this void by becoming a solid parental figure themselves. Unfortunately, every day we can see evidence that people don’t step up to this task.
The reason I’m boring you with hot topics in psychology is to frame what’s going on around us in American society today. In normal times, the future seems fairly stable so being an adult who faces it with confidence isn’t particularly hard. But what happens when a pandemic shakes the world we’ve become comfortable with? What happens when medical experts seem unprepared to react? What happens when uncertainty looms around us everyday?
Do you think the average adult will have any answers then?
No. In the face of such uncertainty, it looks like our collective reaction has been to look for the father archetype in our government to tell us what to do. And the more scared people are, the more willingly they will obey this authority.
I’m not just speculating here— this is a well documented phenomenon. The national center for biotechnology information (NCBI) published a study in 2013 that confirmed an already well-established principle that “authoritarian governments are more likely to emerge in regions characterized by a high prevalence of disease-causing pathogens” (Murray, Schaller, Suedfeld, 2013). This is something called the “parasite stress” hypothesis. It doesn’t take a genius to guess why this happens. People who are scared lack the confidence to make their own decisions. So their willingness to seek direction from a higher authority increases and they happily become sheep for anyone who offers them some answers.
Don’t believe me? Just yesterday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti gave the city the authority to shut off water and electricity to anybody who hosts large gatherings at their home. If that doesn’t sound like an act of authoritarianism to you, then I don’t know what does. So far I haven’t heard of any strong opposition from the media or the people of LA. To be clear, I understand the intention behind this order was to discourage gatherings where COVID-19 might spread. That justification might sound fair today, but it establishes a seriously dangerous precedent for the future.
Knowing the psychology behind what we’re seeing makes this kind of thing very unpredictable. It’s especially not surprising in the United States where it seems like our people have often been easily fooled by authority figures who have “all the answers”. In 2016, Donald Trump won the election with support from millions of Americans who had lost their manufacturing/mining jobs and hungered for answers from somebody. He convinced them that he was that somebody who could fix it all if they gave him the power. Milo Yiannopoulos (conservative commentator) literally calls him “Daddy Donald”. And that’s no joke. Americans had elected their new Daddy.
Are we going to keep on following that same pattern?
I know I’ve said a lot of things but I hope my main point is clear. We’re in a point in our history where all the evidence suggests there is a high risk of falling down a slippery slope towards authoritarianism.
And maybe some people want that. I know I don’t.
Filip, again.
filipagain 
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