The Con and the Primal Horde

Abstract:The ancient problem of the tyrant's seductiveness remains as timely as ever in present-day democracies, despite long established knowledge of his spurious charm. Indeed, such intransigence signals the insufficiency precisely of criticism that focuses solely on knowledge rather than a structural analysis of the paradoxes of enjoyment whereby authoritarian leaders maintain their rapport with the people. Ahead of our time, Melville's 1854 novel The Confidence-Man provides prescient insight into the specific dialectical impasses that fuel the contemporary tyrant's "confidence game." Together with Lacan's revisioning of Freud's myths of sovereignty in Totem and Taboo, this article presents how the contemporary authoritarian masquerade both obfuscates the tragedy of democracy's downfall and remains vulnerable to insurgent truths.