The Con and the Primal Horde

Abstract

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.