When unchecked, despotism meets with no barrier for its self-aggrandizement. This is one of the major reasons why despotism was never effective in traditionally structured societies, where each group, even if situated on a low rung of the social ladder, had considerable autonomy and its own code, hierarchy, and rules of cooperation. Where there are no such groups and no internal differentiation within a society, where there is a social and political vacuum, the despotic power is left as the only form of control. But to be really effective, the despotic control needs something more than sheer terrorism and intimidation. It must supply the people it has deprived of old social environments with a new identity and a new sense of belonging. And this is the role of ideology.
Ryszard Legutko, The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies, pg.133
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