Crisis and Liberty

Vasily Borodin: The crew know about the saboteur and they are afraid.
Captain Marko Ramius: That could be useful when the time comes.
--The Hunt for Red October

Why are people prone to surrender liberty in times of crisis? One theoretical explanation is grounded in threat-rigidity theory. Under conditions of threat, people become more 'rigid' in their thinking. They tend to look at less alternatives and centralize decision-making authority.

Stated differently, critical thinking goes down and willingness to cede power to government goes up.

This theory is complemented by research on judgment and decision-making. When we are threatened, our minds remain fixed in fast-thinking mode. We are reactive, emotional, and less rational. It is difficult to reason well.

In this mode, we are subject to emotional capture by opportunistic statists.

Although they rarely admit it, big government proponents look forward to the next terrorist attack, the next mass shooting, et al. The committed ones may try to facilitate the occurrence of such events. They understand theory about how the masses are likely to respond in times of threat. They know that serious statists never let a good crisis go to waste.