The more I study the matter, the more obvious it seems to me that the root cause of totalitarianism–particularly that sponsored by intellectuals–is the prevalence amongst such people of clinical narcissism, the Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Quite literally, such people are capable neither of conceiving that other points of view might be valid, or that their own conceptions other than perfectlyh correct. They are incapable of empathy, of feeling other people’s pain, other than in the abstract, which is useful to them in that they can then become, again in the abstract, the “saviors” of people who have not asked for their help, and who generally cry for them to cease and desist once they realize in what their “help” consists.
It is said (by Christopher Lasch, among others) that we live in the Age of Narcissism. If we posit that there is no such thing as a NONmalignant narcissist, perhaps it is easier to see why we are surrounded by oceans of self doubt, rage, intellectual incoherence, pervasive muttering by our so-called leaders, and are on a runaway train directed over the cliff of national bankruptcy. All of this is plain to a casual observer of our media.
It is perhaps ironic that what are arguably the two most pernicious influences on the American landscape–Leftism and Objectivism–were both brought into being by Russians, whose harsh world perhaps encourages the sort of inwardness that causes them to forget that Others exist at all.
Again, with regard to Objectivism, I will deal with it presently. For the time being, let me simply note that in her own lifetime, what she created was a Cult of Personality, one characterized by purges and even literal loyalty oaths. That is not freedom: it is, as some percipient observers even then noted, Fascism.