GUEST BLOG: Seeby Woodhouse – The Totalitarian Slide
If you haven’t noticed, something unusual is happening across Western Democracies — not loudly, not uniformly, but persistently.
- In the UK, tens of thousands of people are now arrested each year for social media posts deemed offensive or harmful.
- In Australia, new legislation requires users to verify their identity to access the internet, presented as a child-safety measure but essentially enabling the inescapable universal tracking of opinion of every netizen, tied back to a driver’s licence or ID.
- In Canada, truck drivers protesting government mandates discovered their bank accounts frozen — not by courts after criminal convictions, but by executive decision.
- In New Zealand, a Digital ID is quietly being phased in, controls on banking are being put in place to phase out cash, and facial recognition cameras are being installed everywhere. In addition, proposals are under way to limit free speech in the same way Australia has.
None of these developments, taken in isolation, resemble classic authoritarianism. There are no tanks in the streets. Elections still occur. Life continues largely uninterrupted.
This is how free societies collapse. They do not fall all at once. They are re-engineered gradually, through legal mechanisms, administrative decisions, and moral language that frames control as protection. Each step is justified as temporary, necessary, or exceptional. Each feels reasonable — until the pattern becomes impossible to ignore.
What we are witnessing is not chaos, but coordination. Not repression by force, but compliance through systems. To understand how this is happening, we have to stop looking for a single moment of failure and start paying attention to the process itself.
1. The battle begins with words
Every major political transformation starts with language. Words that once had clear meanings are softened, expanded, or redefined. Terms associated with fairness, protection, or compassion are infused into everyday life — workplaces, schools, media, and religious institutions.
At first, this feels benign. Who would oppose safety, inclusion, or fairness? But over time, these terms stop functioning as values and begin operating as instructions. Language becomes less about describing reality and more about enforcing conformity. When definitions shift, disagreement becomes harder to express without sounding morally suspect.
2. When disagreement becomes a moral offence
In healthy societies, disagreement is expected. It sharpens ideas and exposes weaknesses. In declining ones, disagreement is reframed as something dangerous — not merely wrong, but harmful.
Once dissent is treated as a form of injury, debate becomes unacceptable. People begin to self-censor, not because they’ve been persuaded, but because the cost of speaking is too high. This is a critical turning point: persuasion gives way to pressure, and reason is replaced by accusation.
3. How ideology migrates into institutions
The real shift happens when ideological beliefs stop being argued and start being enforced. Activism moves from protest signs into policy manuals. What once lived in academic theory or campus debate is absorbed into corporate rules, government guidelines, and professional standards.
This process is rarely democratic. It is driven by a small number of highly motivated actors embedded in institutions — HR departments, regulatory bodies, advisory boards — who translate moral claims into operational requirements. Most people comply not because they agree, but because resistance is inconvenient or risky.
History shows that it doesn’t take a majority to reshape a society. A disciplined minority with institutional leverage, supported by a passive majority, can redefine norms with surprising speed.
4. From protest to precedent
Public protest has always been a legitimate tool in free societies. The danger arises when protest replaces persuasion entirely — when emotional pressure substitutes for rational argument.
Leaders, fearful of unrest or reputational damage, begin responding to the loudest voices rather than the broadest consensus. Rules are changed not because they’ve been carefully debated, but because they’re demanded with urgency. Once this becomes normal, the precedent is set: whoever can generate enough disruption can dictate outcomes.
5. Crisis as an accelerator
Crises don’t create authoritarian instincts — they reveal and amplify them. Emergencies justify exceptional powers, and exceptional powers have a habit of lingering.
During periods of fear or uncertainty, populations accept controls they would normally reject. Decisions are centralised. Oversight is relaxed. Questioning official narratives becomes suspect. Temporary measures quietly become permanent fixtures.
The danger isn’t force; it’s habituation. People adapt. What once felt extraordinary becomes routine.
6. From social pressure to structural punishment
In early stages, enforcement is informal — social shaming, reputational damage, exclusion. Later, it becomes systemic.
Professional licenses are questioned. Financial access is restricted. Digital visibility is quietly reduced. Investigations are launched not for actions, but for statements. Punishment is no longer delivered by mobs alone, but by systems designed to appear neutral and procedural.
This shift is especially powerful because it removes personal accountability. “It’s just policy.” “The algorithm decided.” “We’re following guidelines.”
7. The illusion of normality
Perhaps the most dangerous phase is when the system stabilizes. People adjust expectations downward. They learn which topics to avoid, which phrases to repeat, which beliefs are safest to signal publicly.
Life goes on. Shops are open. Entertainment continues. Elections still occur. And because conditions aren’t overtly brutal, warnings are dismissed as exaggeration. Yet the boundaries of acceptable thought continue narrowing, quietly and consistently.
8. Why the story isn’t finished
This trajectory is not inevitable. History contains rare moments where societies course-correct — not through violence, but through moral clarity and courage.
That requires people willing to defend those who are punished for speaking. It requires rebuilding loyalty to truth over comfort, and community over compliance. Families, faith groups, local institutions, and independent networks matter more than ever because they provide resilience outside centralized control.
The final outcome is undecided. One path leads to overt authoritarianism. The other requires effort, risk, and honesty — but it remains possible.
Summary – how free societies slide into totalitarianism:
- Language shifts first.
- Disagreement becomes “harm” or “extremism.”
- Ideology moves from debate into policy.
- Bureaucracies enforce what activists demand.
- Protests replace persuasion.
- Alternative views are labelled “misinformation.”
- Credentials hinge on ideological compliance.
- Dissent is censored-or financially punished.
- Free Speech becomes a liability or impossible.
- The system only normalises itself if enough people stand up for their rights.
Seeby Woodhouse is a NZ tech entrepreneur, CEO of Voyager and posts on Substack.
Seeby Woodhouse’s article was a chilling read but thank-you for raising it. Unfortunately NZ has firmly latched onto this insidious culture and is going overboard to push it down our throats. Massive controls, facial recognision cameras, loss of basic human rights, our democracy seriously compromised etc. The NZ CoC takes the cake here mimicking the already ‘insane’ USA at every step, always too timid and weak to push their own agenda. As Seeby has said taken in isolation it does not resemble classic authoritarianism, but it’s creeping in quietly and without transparency or input from us citizens. When will this evil end and it must as it will totally destroy our lovely country and its people? Time for ALL of us to show some moral courage and fight for our rights.
Whoops again – recognition.