Pandemics and the Conditional Normalization of Emergency Authority
In all of history’s broader spectacles, public health pandemics have consistently proven to be the most pernicious and expansive, ranging from the bubonic plague to smallpox in Mexico. However, in recent times, this precarious position of mass fear of widespread death has transformed into an incubator for authoritarian practices, reshaping political behavior by amplifying uncertainty and fear. In periods of crisis, populations often become more willing to place extraordinary trust in strong leaders who promise security and stability, creating conditions where authoritarian tendencies can gain broader acceptance. Studies from the National Institutes of Health show that a lack of perceived control partially mediates the relationship between a fearful worldview and an increased trust in authoritative rulers. Slowly, pandemics became an elastic bubble around their community, reflecting harmful ideas of presentably calm figures that shine against the backdrop of sheer panic. The strongest objection to my position is that pandemics do not inherently produce authoritarianism, as many democratic societies have successfully navigated public health crises through transparent governance and institutional trust, such as New Zealand and Germany. This objection has real force in contexts where strong democratic institutions and high levels of public trust already exist. However, my argument specifically addresses situations in which fear, uncertainty, and a perceived lack of control weaken confidence in existing institutions, because under those conditions, populations become more receptive to leaders who promise stability and security, making the expansion of authoritarian tendencies more likely. Additionally, one must note that a pandemic singularly isn’t responsible for the growing ease to rise to power within these environments; the people, through sensationalism, biblical justifications, and people-specific policies, are key variables to perfecting this recipe of authoritarian advancement.
To examine the effect of the perceived inability of the people, it’s best to view the environment they’ve built for themselves, on the backs of confirmation bias and misleading exaggerations. Most recently, the pandemic of COVID-19 led to widespread craze on producing mind-numbingly shocking statistics. The most widely discussed and prominent scientific paper among over 20 million published in the past eight years claimed that the spike protein of the new coronavirus showed an "uncanny similarity" to HIV-1 proteins. However, the paper faced immediate and severe criticism for its significant flaws, leading the authors to retract it within days. Despite this, considerable damage had already been done. The preprint ignited conspiracy theories about scientists creating dangerous viruses and provided support for vaccine skeptics. These bizarre interpretations simply fueled the fire on social media platforms that fully took advantage of the clickbait pandemics had. Although this can be argued as an issue of modern development, it’s not far from the past methodology of commercially driven media, like newspapers, amplifying disease threats to increase readership, relying on fear-inducing headlines, and exoticized language. This allows journalism to push forth narratives of all sorts, whether it be for the most convincing story to emphasize preexisting beliefs, such as framing Ebola as solely an "African disease" in Western media, or to promote the ideology of political leaders. A clear sighting of pandemics destabilizing authority and enabling new authoritarian leadership is the smallpox epidemic in the Aztec Empire during the Spanish conquest. As smallpox spread through Indigenous populations who had no prior immunity, it caused massive mortality and severely weakened existing political and military structures. The resulting collapse of centralized coordination and public confidence in traditional leadership created a power vacuum that Hernán Cortés was able to exploit. By forming strategic alliances with disaffected groups and positioning himself as an alternative authority, Cortés consolidated control and ultimately replaced the Aztec ruling system with Spanish colonial governance. In this case, the epidemic did not merely intensify fear but actively dismantled established authority, making the emergence of a new dominant leader possible.
Throughout the Biblical context, pandemic outbreaks are the bookends of human existence, considered both a part of nascent human societies and a part of the very ending of humanity. During the Black Death in Europe, for example, the inability of both secular rulers and religious institutions to explain or contain the catastrophe contributed to widespread disillusionment with established orthodoxy, including declining trust in the Church and the rise of alternative spiritual movements. It proved that pandemics do not merely intensify fear but actively destabilize existing belief systems, creating ideological openings in which traditional sources of authority are questioned and reconfigured. Moreover, it’s been proven that the people are the heart of all democratic institutions; this foundation is what reassures them that their beliefs are fully considered by their elected leaders. However, it largely overestimates their ability to stay true to said beliefs in times of hardship, to not be swayed by herd behavior rituals, especially when it's historically proven that it takes only one person to align themselves with common engagement to convince the people. Most popularly, Hitler's rise was due to the severe economic devastation Europe suffered from, including a mix of their heavy reparations and lingering resentment against fully taking all the blame for World War 1. In hard times, people were easily swayed to follow their fears and engage with a simple, digestible narrative offered to them. Yet one might find this completely unrelated to a medical pandemic; this is exactly the habitat that health crises foster amongst the people.
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