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Prefatory Note
The image that opens this essay was taken inside the Masonic Temple of Philadelphia, a structure conceived by architect John Mary Gibson and interior designer George Herzog as a civic sanctum of symbolic order. Along one of its grand corridors, the Latin phrase fide et fiducia—“by faith and trust”—appears inscribed in gold, presiding over patterned walls, vaulted symmetry, and ritual space.
Such inscriptions, embedded in the design of institutions, are not incidental. They distill a worldview into mottos, gestures, and emblems, inviting belief without question. In this architecture of conviction, the ideals of trust, honor, and fidelity are codified through repetition and reverence. The physical setting becomes a moral template.
This essay explores the persistence of such forms—how belonging is cultivated through ritual, how virtue is performed through alignment, and how, in modern life, the aesthetics of tradition may obscure the labor of thought. The photograph does not explain itself, but its symbols remain present—unmoving, persistent, and open to interpretation.
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The Ritual of Belonging
Group virtue often operates without scrutiny. Once symbols are introduced—flags, mottos, salutes—values begin to resemble formulas: repeatable, ceremonial, unexamined. Belonging takes precedence over understanding. Within such frameworks, the line between loyalty and obedience fades, and systems of moral performance begin to replace systems of moral reasoning.
The structure is familiar. Organizations built on tradition—be they civic, fraternal, or political—adopt postures of unity and discipline, cultivating a sense of shared purpose while discouraging internal dissent. Ceremonies do not welcome contradiction. In many such settings, affirmation becomes a form of sublimation, and ritual a substitute for thought.
This cultural pattern predates contemporary politics. Its persistence depends not on any one ideology, but on a readiness to exchange reflection for reassurance. When belief is inherited through performance rather than inquiry, it becomes indistinguishable from superstition. The language remains uplifting—duty, service, honor—but the content thins out. Over time, what is repeated becomes what is revered, and what is revered becomes untouchable.
This imitation has become increasingly visible in the political sphere. No more so than in the visible rise of Trumpism, which distilled belonging into spectacle and allegiance into repetition. It weaponized affirmation, turned performance into principle, and recoded belonging as opposition. Its slogans thrived on exclusion, its truths on applause. But what emerged was not only a political movement—it was a ritual template: highly transferable, affect-driven, and structurally indifferent to fact. That template now echoes far beyond politics, seeping into how reality itself is being filtered, including through artificial intelligence. Trained on language steeped in polarized emotion and viral certainty, AI systems are learning to mimic a world shaped by fervor, not reflection. The same pressures that hollow out discourse in human arenas—speed, spectacle, certainty—now shape the machine’s mirror of us. In this feedback loop, the aesthetics of belief are reinforced, while the conditions for nuance erode.
Identity is offered as redemption. The individual is folded into a collective story with a ready-made meaning and a designated enemy. Applause becomes evidence. Slogans become arguments. Conviction replaces clarity. Political movements, once shaped by ideals, begin to mirror the emotional architecture of clubs, congregations, and lodges.
Few notice the shift while it happens. Emotional coherence is mistaken for truth. Dissent sounds like betrayal. The invocation of tradition appears more trustworthy than the disruption of contradiction. Repetition creates comfort. Symbols produce confidence. Under such conditions, facts are less persuasive than feelings that seem familiar.
This is not the result of ignorance alone. It is the outcome of cultural habits that discourage ambiguity. In many environments, uncertainty is mistaken for weakness. Questioning is mistaken for disloyalty. The space for moral hesitation—the place where ethical clarity might grow—is quietly removed.
Authoritarianism does not begin with violence. It begins with ritual. Its strength lies not in force, but in emotional choreography: the right gesture at the right time, the practiced cadence of certainty, the reward of approval. It borrows the tone of heritage to advance the mechanisms of control. In its early forms, it is nearly indistinguishable from patriotism, from tradition, from pride.
Resistance, if it is to mean anything, cannot rely on counter-slogans or louder voices. It must begin with the restoration of difficulty—with the refusal to accept that belonging is more important than understanding. Reflection must interrupt ritual. Doubt must interrupt repetition. The goal is not to replace one set of unexamined beliefs with another, but to slow the machinery long enough to remember what thought feels like when it is not performed.
No movement built on emotional choreography can long withstand honest attention. It thrives on reflex, not recognition. And when the symbols lose their spell—when applause no longer passes for argument; then clarity, long exiled, returns—not quietly, but with the gravity of attention.
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Ricardo F. Morin, Bala Cynwyd, Pa., July 16, 2025
Annotated Bibliography
- Arendt, Hannah: Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Viking Press, 1963. (A foundational analysis of how ordinary people participate in systemic harm by following rules and routines without moral reflection).
- Arendt, Hannah: The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt, 1973. (A sweeping historical account of the conditions that enable authoritarian regimes, with emphasis on ideological myth-making and political isolation).
- Berger, Peter L., and Luckmann, Thomas: The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books, 1967. (Explores how collective belief systems take on the force of reality through habitual social practices and institutional reinforcement).
- Bermeo, Nancy: “On Democratic Backsliding”. Journal of Democracy 27 (1): 5–19, 2016. (An analysis of how modern authoritarianism emerges gradually within democratic frameworks, often through rituals of legitimacy).
- Brown, Wendy: Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006. (Critiques how liberal ideals of tolerance and diversity can paradoxically serve exclusionary and imperial power structures).
- Eco, Umberto: “Ur-Fascism”. The New York Review of Books, June 22, 1995. (A compact essay identifying recurring features of fascist ideology, particularly its emotional appeal and use of cultural nostalgia).
- Elias, Norbert: The Civilizing Process. Oxford: Blackwell. Revised Edition, 2000. (Traces the historical evolution of self-regulation and public behavior, revealing how ritual and hierarchy shape social norms).
- Frankfurt, Harry G.: On Bullshit. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. (A concise philosophical inquiry into the nature of insincere speech and the erosion of truth in public language).
- Fromm, Erich: Escape from Freedom. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1941. (Describes the psychological mechanisms by which individuals relinquish freedom in exchange for belonging under authoritarian rule).
- Girard, René: Violence and the Sacred. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977. (Examines how ritualized violence and scapegoating function as stabilizing myths in collective identity and moral systems).
- Graeber, David: The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2015. (A critique of how bureaucratic systems—both state and civic—sustain irrational authority through ritual and deference).
- Hedges, Chris: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. New York: Free Press, 2007. (Investigates how religious and civic ritual are used to normalize authoritarian tendencies in American political life).
- Hofstadter, Richard: The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964. (A seminal exploration of conspiratorial thinking and performative virtue in American political rhetoric.
- Illouz, Eva: The End of Love: A Sociology of Negative Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. (Analyzes how emotional life is structured by political and economic forces, with attention to how identities are manipulated by affect).
- Milgram, Stanley: Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. New York: Harper & Row, 1974. (Details the famous psychological experiments on obedience, showing how institutional framing can suppress ethical responsibility).
- Orwell, George: “Politics and the English Language”. Horizon, April 1946. (A classic essay on how political language obscures meaning and enables ideological deception).
- Putnam, Robert D.: Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. (Documents the decline of civic engagement and the transformation of group belonging in American culture).
- Scott, James C.: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. (Explores how centralized systems impose simplified models of society that disregard lived experience, often with destructive effects).
- Sennett, Richard: The Fall of Public Man. New York: Knopf, 1977. (Argues that modern life has hollowed out the space for reflective public discourse, replacing it with scripted social roles).
- Turner, Victor: The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago: Aldine Publishing, 1969. (Foundational in the study of ritual, this book explores how symbolic acts create social cohesion while suppressing ambiguity).
- Weber, Max: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Scribner, 1958. (Connects religious discipline and capitalist rationality, illuminating how ethics become institutionalized through habit and belief).
- Weil, Simone: The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Toward Mankind. New York: Harper & Row, 1952. (A moral meditation on the need for justice, belonging, and resistance to ideological coercion).
- Zuboff, Shoshana: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. New York: PublicAffairs, 2019. (Details how digital platforms convert personal behavior into economic control, blending corporate power with rituals of personalization).
Observations On Perception 