Keith Ellison

I enjoyed Twilight of Democracy. Anne Applebaum is a great story teller. But I read it to gain understanding about what drives authoritarianism in our age. I know it’s in there somewhere, but I never put my finger on what she believes is the cause or causes. She described the creep authoritarianism extremely well. I could feel her alarm as she watched it spread in Poland, Hungary, US, and elsewhere, but I finished the book without understanding what she believes is driving it. As she describes the creep of authoritarianism, it feels like her point is that the inevitable process of change, sooner or later, brings the world to moments when authoritarianism prevails. She seems to reduce all to character flaws in individuals, some of whom she encountered in her personal life. This may be her point: authoritarianism is about ego-driven people and their followers deciding that they want to rule the rest of us. I’m sure that’s part of it, but I guess I was looking for some universally applicable phenomena in our societies or economy. But never saw that. Felt like a diary, rather than a commentary on the world we all live in.