Mattias Desmet has been popping up on youtube speaking about the phenomenon of mass formation or the coalescenceof a significant percentage of the population around a perceived situation that must be dealt with even at the cost of abandoning normal ethical principles. The covid 19 ‘emergency’ which I have been calling covidology is an example of this zombification. A lot of people got bitten.
In his conversation with John Waters he covers much of the same ground as he did previously linking the panicked response to the emergence of totalitarianism. He’s written a book on this ‘The Psychology of Totalitarianism’ which is to be published later this month. The difference between the usual delineation of the mechanisms facilitating the emergence of a mob mind and this conversation with John Waters is the sympathetic vibration of their strings which brought out what Otto called the non-rational sources of knowledge and awe normally called wisdom. Aristotle and the Thomists, that band, call it connaturality. The not-mentioned Jacques Maritain frequently writes about it in ‘The Degrees of Knowledge’- on my book stand at the moment.
Have a look: you’re worth it.
totalitarianism