"Authoritarian political ideologies have a vested interest in promoting fear, a sense of the imminence of takeover by aliens and real diseases are useful material"
About this Quote
Authoritarianism feeds on anxiety the way a fire feeds on oxygen, and Sontag is brutally clear about the fuel: manufactured imminence. Not fear in the abstract, but fear with a countdown clock attached. The genius of her formulation is the pairing of the fantastical and the biological - aliens and “real diseases” - as equally serviceable raw material. One is pulp paranoia, the other is corporeal fact, and in the hands of power they converge: both let leaders frame the world as a contaminated border that must be sealed, policed, purged.
Sontag’s subtext is also an accusation about storytelling. Authoritarian ideologies don’t merely exploit crises; they curate narratives in which the public is perpetually on the verge of being overrun. “Takeover” is doing heavy work here: it suggests invasion, replacement, loss of identity. It’s a political emotion disguised as a security assessment. The “vested interest” language matters too, because it denies the regime the alibi of sincere panic. Fear isn’t an unfortunate byproduct; it’s a strategy with institutional beneficiaries - expanded surveillance, tightened social control, a citizenry trained to equate obedience with survival.
The context is classic Sontag: her long preoccupation with how metaphors colonize public health and politics (think Illness as Metaphor, AIDS and Its Metaphors). She’s warning that when disease becomes a symbol rather than a condition, it turns into permission: to scapegoat, to simplify, to turn complexity into enemies. Aliens are just the cartoon version of the same trick.
Sontag’s subtext is also an accusation about storytelling. Authoritarian ideologies don’t merely exploit crises; they curate narratives in which the public is perpetually on the verge of being overrun. “Takeover” is doing heavy work here: it suggests invasion, replacement, loss of identity. It’s a political emotion disguised as a security assessment. The “vested interest” language matters too, because it denies the regime the alibi of sincere panic. Fear isn’t an unfortunate byproduct; it’s a strategy with institutional beneficiaries - expanded surveillance, tightened social control, a citizenry trained to equate obedience with survival.
The context is classic Sontag: her long preoccupation with how metaphors colonize public health and politics (think Illness as Metaphor, AIDS and Its Metaphors). She’s warning that when disease becomes a symbol rather than a condition, it turns into permission: to scapegoat, to simplify, to turn complexity into enemies. Aliens are just the cartoon version of the same trick.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
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