{"id":44072,"date":"2021-08-30T03:39:50","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T10:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/?p=44072"},"modified":"2021-08-30T08:20:40","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T15:20:40","slug":"dealing-with-our-new-totalitarian-reality-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/30\/dealing-with-our-new-totalitarian-reality-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with our new totalitarian reality, part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s one thing you can say for totalitarianism: the coolest people will all be Outlaws<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They’ll import and export goods without government controls. They’ll provide free-market services. They’ll operate free communication networks. They’ll make unregulated products and sell them in unregulated ways. They’ll barter, use cash, use gold or silver, develop and use new forms of cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n

It’ll be just like Libertopia. Except, you know, with the ever-present threat of death or long, harsh imprisonment. But that’s what Outlaws are about.<\/p>\n

Since totalitarianism is the direction we’re going, hey we might as well enjoy a few silver linings.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

I say that’s the direction we’re going because everybody seems to have a slightly different definition of what totalitarianism encompasses and very few people would say that we are actually living in a totalitarian society right now. <\/p>\n

After all, this is “the land of the free.” This is “the freest country on earth.” Totalitarian? Hey, we fought those guys — and we won!<\/p>\n

But the truth is we are<\/em> actually living in a totalitarian society right now<\/em>. And we’d better recognize that so we can deal with reality.<\/p>\n

Is it as fully developed as Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union, or North Korea’s socialist paradise? Of course not. But do you have to wait for the day-long bread lines or the boxcars full of doomed Deplorables to recognize the nature of a thing? Most people probably will wait — until it’s too late. But Western society — led by the Five Eyes countries of the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, and trailed faithfully by most of Europe — has already gone totalitarian with dizzying speed.<\/p>\n

Totalitarianism is not “down the road.” It’s not merely in politicians’ dreams. It’s not merely something one administration wants that can be undone by v*ting in a different bunch of liars, thieves, con artists, and slave-masters. It’s not merely a temporary condition that will be lifted once the current crisis (whichever current crisis is being used as the excuse) has abated. It’s here. It’s the new nature of our society and the everyday practice of our ruling class.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

The Encyclopedia Britannica<\/em> (which I’m always surprised to find still exists) gives the cleanest, most straightforward definition<\/a> of totalitarianism. It is a “form of government that theoretically permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of individual life to the authority of the state.” <\/p>\n

Benito Mussolini invented the term in the early 1920s, and further defined it as “all within the state, none outside the state, none against the state.”<\/p>\n

Read the whole Britannica entry. It’s short and very worthwhile. Its only great shortcoming (and it’s a doozy) is that it focuses solely on historic totalitarianisms. It doesn’t touch contemporary realities. It doesn’t address the role that technology plays in enabling total control. <\/p>\n

Still, as quaintly old-fashioned as it is, I found only one aspect of its description of totalitarianism that doesn’t in some way apply to us. Says Britannica: “The totalitarian state pursues some special goal, such as industrialization or conquest, to the exclusion of all others. All resources are directed toward its attainment, regardless of the cost.”<\/p>\n

I don’t see that in the U.S. or anywhere in the Five Eyes. On the contrary, any goals we have seem muddled. Or ephemeral. Today the state’s goal is “jabs for all.” Twenty years ago it was “fighting terrorism.” The state tries to rally us around “climate change” or “diversity” or “equity” or whatever its newest war in the Middle East is. We’ve been ludicrously asked by the state to “Whip Inflation Now (WIN)” and “Just say no.” But all this nonsense comes and goes. Yes, the state gains power with every one of these efforts (well, maybe not WIN which quickly got laughed off the national stage back in the day). But we certainly aren’t being driven toward one overriding goal like “New Soviet Man” or a workers paradise or “The Thousand-Year Reich” or building the master race. <\/p>\n

In that way we differ from twentieth-century totalitarian states. But then, virtually every article on the subject carefully notes that every totalitarian state looks different<\/em> but operates on similar principles.<\/p>\n

Going through multiple sites’ definitions and my own knowledge of history, I come up with these bullet points for totalitarianism. <\/p>\n