Book recomendations about how societies coped with, and transcended, authoritarian indoctrination and political fanatism.

by Tinardo

Hi everyone!

I'm from Argentina, and some days ago we had presidential elections, and after 12 years of the same party ruling, we have a change in the goverment.

The thing is, in the last 12 years, thanks to the cultural, propagandistic and educational policy of the goverment, we've been kind of "split" in two as a society. We never got to the point of actual indoctrination, but damn, it got quite close at some points. Today, we are kind of divided in two as a society: One half, die-hard fans of the Kirchner's Goverment (the one's that ruled the last 12 years). The other half (and a bit more, acording to the results of the election) die-hard anti-Kirchner.

It's a hard situation, and what's even worst, some hardcore pro-Kirchner supporters are calling for riots, resistance and uprisings against the new, democraticaly elected goverment. It's not hard to imagine, lot's of us are wondering how long it might take for this "gap" in the society to be mended, and if direct measures of the goverment should be taken for it to happen, or if it will eventually and naturaly happen.

So, and now I go to the main point of this thread, can anyone provide recomendations of books, information, articles, whatever, that touches the subject of how societies and people coped with the falling of dictatorships and authoritarian goverments, how they got rid (in case they could) of the indoctrination, the social implications of the immediate aftermatch once the dictators or leaders lost power, etc.

Right now I'm reading "Embracing Defeat" by Dower, where they touch the subject in post-Imperial Japan, but I haven't finished, so I can't tell if they go deep into it.

I will also apreciate any opinions! Thanks in advance!

gnualmafuerte

we've been kind of "split" in two as a society

We've been split in two as a society for 75 years now. Peronism got the vote of the less educated, poorer section of the country, and then made sure there were more poor people so they could stay in power. When your voters are poor and uneducated, your main priority is making sure there are plenty of poor, uneducated people to cast your ballot. The split is inherent to any society. Humans are greedy, some are better at it than others. What Peronism did is make that ridge wider and wider, and make sure more and more people jump on their side.

The book "Es el peronismo, estúpido", put it perfectly: "El peronismo genera atraso; el atraso genera frustración; la frustración genera peronismo". Go read it.