REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

THE SPIRIT OF DESPOTISM 153

sway behavior and increase their narcissistic tendencies, Mugabe of
Zimbabwe being one of the more recent examples.

The despot’s toolbox

It is useful now to analyze what other means (beyond the obvious one
of violence) tyrants use to remain in power, and to succeed in continu-
ing to subjugate an entire population. Probably the strongest weapon
other than violence is that of ideology.

The Enchantment of Ideology

To Hannah Arendt, a major tool of the totalitarian despot is the intro-
duction of an ideology with supreme values — a political religion that
replaces traditional religion (Arendt, 1969 ). Such an ideology usually
claims to provide the answer to all - important social and historical dilem-
mas. To use the words of the sociologist, Robert Jay Lifton:

Behind ideological totalism lies the ever - present human quest for the

omnipotent guide — for the supernatural force, political party, philosophi-

cal ideas, great leader, or precise science — that will bring ultimate solidar-

ity to all men and eliminate the terror of death and nothingness. (Lifton,

1961 , p. 436)

Frequently, the promise is a laudable, utopian - like solution to the human
condition, but the ideological goals of totalitarian systems vary. For
example, while the Soviet Union under Stalin and the People ’ s Republic
of China under Mao Zedong sought the universal fulfi llment of human-
kind through the establishment of a classless society, Germany under
Hitler ’ s National Socialism attempted to establish a thousand - year reich
based on the superiority of the so - called Aryan race. Ironically, in the
process of universalizing their goals to improve society, despotism often
destroys the moral fabric of that society. Frequently, the leaders of such
totalitarian entities create huge bureaucratic machines to institutionalize
their allegedly virtue - based worldview.
Although the outside world often views despots as the instigators of
evil regimes, in fact the belief system that supports them is often in place
before they take the reins. Often this has developed initially through
alienated and frustrated intellectuals and/or theocrats in such a society
developing and speaking of a particular vision of utopian society. They