Authoritarian Elements Throughout Current Society
Various elements of modern society due to the outbreak of COVID-19 reflect that of historical authoritarian beliefs. For example, individuals believing that their rights are being rejected, other aspects of social conformity, distrust, the rise of xenophobia, and inequality amongst different groups. The artifacts below showcase these ideas, establishing a basis for understanding how our current society might be reflecting attitudes of authoritarianism amongst governance and amongst our own communities.
IDENTIFYING AUTHORITARIANISM: Damian R. Murray, Mark Schaller, Peter Suedfeld, Aric Gregson define the three major aspects of authoritarian styles of governments and how these elements are reflected amongst the society they are ruling over.
This source outlines the nature of protests occurring across the country, referencing breaching of people's rights due to lockdowns, mask mandates, shutdowns, and social distancing during the Coronavirus outbreak.
This clip from a New York Times article outlines a form of self-surveillance that is existent amongst counties of the United States, allowing others to contact officials when others throughout communities are breaking social distancing rules, this case is Dane County, Wis.
These images show the ways that New York State has established a very structured list of guidelines for individuals regarding the Coronavirus pandemic, along with a system to complain about those (businesses, individuals, systems, groups, etc.) who are not following these rules. This may allude to a self-surveillance kind of governance. Also, a highly structured system of state governance seems to exist here.
This evidence is the conclusion of research seeing if public compliance with municipal rules requiring face masks to be worn throughout general spaces would be followed, based amongst France. The research summary outlines how social conformity seems to establish adherence to the rule. Group dynamics might be impactful, the research suggests.
These graphs showcase how xenophobia has become more existent during the Coronavirus outbreak, especially amongst minority groups- considerably, Asian and Black Americans. More U.S. adults are likely to express discrimination towards these groups throughout the pandemic. The research outlines the trend of prejudice ideology becoming more noticeable. Compared to pre-Covid-19, individuals have experiences of this more frequently.
This text discusses the ways minority groups are being effected more greatly economically due to the outbreak of Coronavirus, with growing unemployment rates, despite the wealthiest percentage of America growing richer.