A leader arises, a tough guy, who promises to fight for them. He will be uncompromising, ruthless with the bad guys. Those who are afraid are desperate, they will follow anyone with confidence, charisma and determination.

This isn't necessarily bad, for every Hitler there is a Churchill, for every Reagan there is a Roosevelt. Sometimes they deliver, other times they lead their followers to collective catastrophe. And sometimes you get a Napoleon Bonaparte or even an Abraham Lincoln? Is it just "the times", the Zeitgeist, or is it the coming of the Great Man? Like all questions framed that way, maybe the answer is both, or neither, or even something in between. Somehow, we never learn much from our choices until its too late.

There is a certain amount of determinism, of social momentum involved; "The times were ripe, if it hadn't been him, it would have been someone else". But how it turns out is often just blind dumb luck, it all depends on who rises up to meet the challenge.