" Another key trait of the authoritarian character is his longing for a belief in historical determination and permanence: [Erich From wrote,] 'It is fate that there are wars and that one part of mankind has to be ruled by another. It is fate that the amount of suffering can never be less than it always has been. ... The authoritarian character worships the past. What has been, will eternally be. To wish or to work for something that has not yet been before is crime or madness. The miracle of creation - and creation is always a miracle - is outside his range of emotional experience. "
― Masha Gessen , The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
![Masha Gessen quote : Another key trait of the authoritarian character is his longing for a belief in historical determination and permanence: [Erich From wrote,] 'It is fate that there are wars and that one part of mankind has to be ruled by another. It is fate that the amount of suffering can never be less than it always has been. ... The authoritarian character worships the past. What has been, will eternally be. To wish or to work for something that has not yet been before is crime or madness. The miracle of creation - and creation is always a miracle - is outside his range of emotional experience.](/image/2560829.jpg)