I’ve just started reading Anne Applebaum’s book “Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism”. I’ve just finished her “Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World”. The latter is how autocrats operate, the former is about how they are allowed to arise from the psychology and sociology of their own victims..

I’ve never read Arendt or fully studied Eco, but they all seem to be talking about more or less the same
phenomenon, what I often describe with glib phrases like “Fascism is the dictatorship of the middle class.”

Applebaum is terrific. I can’t recommend her more. She seems to be able to explain in detail institutions and social forces I am aware of superficially, but cannot fully organize into consistent philosophical concepts or models. I find myself agreeing with her analyses and conclusions, probably because she has already arrived at a place I am still struggling to get to.