[coldtea]

>Such movements are harder to take root in cultures that empower the individual and limit the authority of those in power to direct the lives of millions.

Those cultures have even less resistance for when a totalitarian power center emerges, as society is already broken down into people separated from each other, and unable to see eye to eye. Such a people is the easiest to break down.

And even without a central totalitarian figurehead, people without wider social binds to aid them and work together, are powerless individuals, and as such are bowing down every day to whatever bigger power they meet: to politicians, to corporate power, to billionaire moguls who set the terms and own their media, to a byzantine legal system, and of course to their bosses.