Totalitarianism can only exist with the mass support of the people.

The support is garnered through fear.

“The enemy is at the gates!” (it matters not who or what the enemy is) And the masses willingly submit to the “protective measures” of the State. The measures may be extreme but not as threatening as the enemy1.

But if the people did not fear, if they saw the “protection measures” as mere control. Then there could be a collective “No!” to totalitarianism and a collective “Yes!” to restored freedom.

It would take brave and collective action.

It would have to happen before the collective mind is owned by the State…

“This is what totalitarian regimes keep unceasingly trying to achieve. People whose memory—personal or collective—has been nationalised, has become state-owned and perfectly malleable, totally controllable, are entirely at the mercy of their rulers; they have been deprived of their identity; they are helpless and incapable of questioning anything they are told to believe. They will never revolt, never think, never create; they have been transformed into dead objects.” 

Leszek Kolakowsk, Totalitarianism and the Lie

Could this happen? The collective “No!”?

Or are we2 already hopelessly under the spell of mass psychosis?