Professor of clinical psychology at Ghent University Mattias Desmet is the world’s leading expert in the phenomenon known as “mass formation,” which is a type of hypnotic state that occurs when people are isolated from one another and free-floating anxiety is prevalent, as in during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Desmet believes the world is now seeing a new form of totalitarianism, spawned in the last couple of decades and fostered by mass formation during the pandemic.
“What you’re dealing with now is not a communist or not fascist authoritarianism. It is the emergence, I think, of technocratic totalitarianism,” Desmet said during a recent interview for EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program. This new form of control will not be “led by gang leaders such as Stalin or Hitler, but by dull bureaucrats and technocrats,” added Desmet, citing the work of 20th century political philosopher Hannah Arendt….