Permanent Revolution
Totalitarianism in the age of international civil war
Introduction
The goal of totalitarianism is to perpetuate and to institutionalize revolution. The dictatorships of the mid-20th century Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin were personified as the symbol or stereotype of a nation. Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro and the two George Bushes would be their counterparts today. Even the end of the number one man does not guarantee the end of the dictatorial system. The existence of a machine promises the survival of autocratic rule beyond the life span of its creators.
Modern dictatorship is a leviathan of the machine, and what makes that machine run is human people as fuel and the price paid for it's success is high. Control of this machine rests on the specific relationship between leaders and followers. It would not be misleading to regard the followers in modern autocracies as a blind herd following a all powerful leader. True the ones arranged above the masses believe man to be manageable and the whole problem with modern society thus boils down to a question of techniques and strategies for mastering the human material.
A totalitarian dictatorship is the transformation of once free institutions into and gathering them together for the control. The main goal is to begin war. To maintain a constant state of war.Historical reality often changes without having managed to create a new language This is of primary importance for the survival of democracies where of all forms of society is most dependent on mutual understanding. Modern dictatorships capitalize upon the intellectual vacuum.
All social concepts must be seen in their historical context they are defined in time and space and are tested anew in every generation and in every society if they have meaning for their adherents and to render effective resistance to their challengers. A strategy of confusion is a powerful weapon in the hands of an unscrupulous enemy. The conflict between democracy and dictatorship is everyone's concern, it must be faced with courage and open-minded realism there is no place for the cynic or utopian.
The dictator was a temporary ruler in republican Rome appointed to handle emergencies. Since the end of the First World War however dictatorship has seemed to convey a very different meaning it is often identified with autocracy or absolutism misleading as such a definition may be it rightly connotes the aspiration of modern dictators to permanence. It is not the Romans 6-month rule but at least the millennium that the modern dictator aims to establish. Present day autocracies are not just departures from the democratic norm, it is the substitution of democratic government and replacing the government in control from one dictator into the totalitarian rule over practically every sphere of human interest and activity.
The evolution of historical governments will display the tyrants return to governmental institunial organizations.the pre-WWI period saw the decline of absolutism of the ancient regime period which began to disappear after the French revolution. The newly awakened mass public that is stirred to action by public opinion is the so-called democratic revolution. The present day dictators are the children of the democratic era. The new tyrannies whose historic hour strikes in the age of democracies are popular dictatorships.The legal seizure of power, the pretense to free elections, and the constant craving for popular acclaim are but the survival skills needed to stay in power.
The rise of modern political democracy coincided with the sweeping social changes of modern industrialism and urbanization, with the breakdown of a fixed social order, of basic religious concepts, and of old institutions. The demagogue or leader of the people steps up to the Mic to relive all the people of their ills. When economics, social orders, religious organizations break down people look for new leaders and authorities and when the order is lost the demagogue arises. These leaders are the substitute for institutions in the time of transition
The setting of the modern dictatorship is Europe of the armistice period. A fertile breeding ground for more war.the armistice period was laden with political passions, economic misery, and psychological strain.Nationalism the driving force since the French revolution seemingly reached the armistice period its greatest victory in the recognition of national self-determination as the basic principle of the treaty of Paris system.the complete destruction of the dual monarchy of Austria was credited with creating 35 out of 25 political units.This balkanization of Europe was populated with many young and poor nations a new scramble was underway for access to raw materials to rebuild and create new economies for these young nations.The industrial war also had a another awful side effect the desenseification to violence death and destruction. The loss of morality goes far in creating the stage for more.
The ideal of Fascism was begun in the Italy of the WWI era. Italy and Germany were late comers to the nationalistic organization of Europe into nation states. Italy was still semi-feudal in the structure of the countryside. Italy was lacking in raw materials and capitalististic industries were not important early on. After the war the inflationary period only angered the peasantry and the small white-collar middle class were hardest hit by the redistribution of wealth. Because the people were regionally organized the ideal of national politics was a new idea and took an event to really bring the need for organization to the apathiec masses. The factory workers seized the factories because of a threatened lockout by employers and from that event on class distinctions became more visible than beforehand. With the mood of civil strife in the air the fascist military elements marched on Rome in 1922 to prevent the fall of the country into Bolshevism or communism. The opposition to the Russian communism would be the main myth as to the sudden rise of fascism. Mussolini the Italian leader said Fascism as an idea is undeniable. It is a fact taking place.Or Alfredo Rococo (a fascist spokesman) said, It is, above all, action and sentiment. Fascism was this vague and programless ideology was easily molded to fit what ever a situation demanded.
The rise of National Socialism or Nazism in Germany was the call to overcome a national inferiority complex and become a first class nation once again. Yet in order to set free all these forces and to direct them into one political stream the social circumstances of a depression were needed .In 1929 the great economic depression of the 1930's began as the international bankers had contracted the currency to set the world stage for another war. In Germany this depression revealed a breakdown of a surface boom revival of the WWI military was then looked back on with pride. The children of the war period were unemployed and youth eagerly greeted the propaganda speakers with joy. The permanently employed is helpless, indifferent, and apathetic. The ideal of revolution was begun by the idle intellectuals and fedto the worker. In the eyes of the youth the old ideas of peace, equality, justice had lost their spell.
More and more people preferred to leave decisions in the hands of a strong executive. The German republic, which was often seized by legislative deadlock, resorted to the Constitutional Dictatorship Clause in the new Weimar republic. The empowerment of the executive with supreme emergency powers was to be the downfall of the young German democracy. In Jan. 1933 Adolf Hitler was made the chancellor of the German Reichstag.Not until 1926 did Italian fascism stamp out all the other parties and secret societies and thus establish the monopoly of the fascist party. Only 6 months after the nazis came to power did they write laws to discourage new political parties from being formed 1933.
5 basic patterns stand out in the emergence of a dictatorship.the promise of security, action instead of program, the democratic foundations, war psychology, and the leadership principle.
WWI shattered the social and moral order. What the exposure to daily death and destruction did was to popularize and vulgarize these trends towards another conflict. What was the lingo of a skeptical intelligentsia became the slogan of the masses. It usually takes almost a whole generation before philosophical thoughts become the commonplace of a period. Only then are they ripe to be transferred into political action.The leader who arises only promises that he will build a new society for the working class. He has no real program for the march into tomorrow.this blank check for the leader only relieves the lower and middle class of any responsibility.
The Demagogue who arises is seemingly standing on a democratic foundation were the people give him authority. The all-embracing propaganda machine leads the sheepish mass into the post-democratic autocracy. This reborn dictatorship is militant in character. The nation is seen as its army, Its life is constant battle, its citizens are political soldiers. War is nearly always a dictatorship, soldiers forget institutions for men. This is even true in modern warfare. There are no longer any frontiers. Air raids and hunger blockades affect the average civilians as well.
The idea of the totalitarian state was born during the WWI.In wartime all opposition and discussion must cease.Personal liberty no longer exists. The claim to absolutist control by the dictatorial parties in post-war Europe has always been based on a real or presumed danger from abroad. Therefore modern dictatorship focuses its machinery for propaganda on building up a fighting sprit. No actual warfare is needed in order to create this warlike atmosphere and reaction. Modern dictatorship assumes the place of a religion for people who have lost their faith in transcendental power.
The leader in the modern dictatorship is the focus for the mass to receive their opinion. Two schools of history has arisen to understand causes and reasons for war and conflicts. The devil theory blames everything on the villain and then relieves the betrayed masses of responsibility. The hero worship theory pins all hope of a liberator who will lead the suffering society into a better tomorrow. The rise and acceptance of modern dictators are due to two historical premises the ascendancy of modern mass democracy and the breakdown of institutions.institutional and personal leadership styles are respective of the democracy and dictatorship governments. Democratic leaders always remain representative of institutions and not substitutes for them as dictators claim to be.
The American President is the personification of the American government. In fact the whole American system is largely influenced by the presidents office. The major parties have often been called loose leagues to capture the presidency.But the party that brings him into office looks to the president as the chief patronage dispenser. The American president is the leader and prisoner of his party.
In the early twentieth century the four most powerful people in England were said to be, The Prime Minister, the Governor of the bank of England, the editor of the London times, and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In modern dictatorships the leader is the substitute for institutions in the age of mass democracy, create by necessity a specific type of leadership.he is the cottage-bred man or the John Doe every man is anyone.The public opinion is everything to these leaders, and the public opinion percentage polls of today show how many people rate their support of a leader on others support of him.Man of the people or organizer of the masses voice of the marketplace he maybe he is strangely remote from the people themselves. But is the leader the representative of his people or a stranger to them? The modern dictator is a marginal man of a marginal group. The middle class that is shrinking the unemployed who has no hope will grant blessings on this political outsider to rush to the center of political events and assume control in the name of the people.
Just as dictators-different from the dynastic autocrats-do not hold power thanks to princely birth or legal title, so their military repute scarcely derives from official standing There is nothing new in militarism breeding dictatorship. Like the system itself the dictator is the creation of war. Demagogic leadership is the rule of the amateur. They usurp power and make themselves rulers of the realm.Might is right, and this might rest with a blind and faithful army. Shifting and variable as such personal rule is by its essence, to win a permanent hold on his era becomes the mainspring of the modern usurper. This is the way of winning control for those who have no ancestry.
Four decisive elements make up the composite structure of governmental organizations. They are bureaucratic, feudal, democratic, and militant.
The bureaucratic component is an outstanding feature of political organizations. The main strength of the American boss rests on his command of an organization. This party machine not only is all-powerful in the daily life of the decentralized democratic party of the American system and functions similar to autocratic control. The totalitarian character of the dictatorial party above all else integrates all human activities. The political lieutenants as representatives of the party machine are mere tools and the human equation is almost completely blotted out.
The feudal element of the political party is the hierarchical structure where sovereignty rests no longer with the people, as power should in a democracy but with the dictator alone. The political lieutenants seek patronage from their leader just as vassals in chief received it from their overlords in medieval times. Spoils are received for services rendered. The boss rule of present day dictators however is unchecked. Moreover their feudal empire produces a type of political agent new on the political scene.the personal confidant of the leader. An evaluation of policy predominant at a specific period whether right or left wing, capitalistic or socialist group who is at the helm largely depends upon who has the leaders ear at the moment. The dictatorial party organization is organized from above.
The third feature a democratic foundation is necessary to let the people believe they have a say in the policy created by the government. The pretense of freeelections, the dictatorial party itself, an extensive propaganda machine serve the same purpose of bridging the distance between government and the people. But dictatorship is democracy for the insiders or new autocrats alone. As the Electoral College in the United States alone chooses the president popular elections are but a meaningless show for the mass population. The President or dictator is the inflated ego that makes them bear the sad reality of subservience and sacrifice. The strict division of a two-class caste system of hierarchical leaders and the poor human mass is the basis of plebiscitary dictatorship. The manipulators of the public mind are masters in the rationalization of the irrational.(the word Tenant a rent payer is in lieutenant.)
The fourth and most important Militant element provides the fear factor that enables a small minority of super wealthy autocrats to control a mass of slave laboring citizens. While the bureaucrats function as a dams against a revolution checking and reporting the unbrainwashed elements. The army unites the fighters to destroy whatever the leaders wish. The holy War makes every citizen a militant fighter. No compromises with the political opponent are possible. The citizens become political soldiers since the nations life is a constant battle. Sub-ordination is the main feature of such organization. War is the occasion for military leaders to rise and often create new elite autocrats.
Institutional channels are the main avenue for future democratic leaders."Any fool" as Napoleon said "Can govern in a state of seige".And it has been often been said that the rapid change of membership of the American House of Representatives is the main reason the Senate has outstripped it of power. Yet the selection of political leaders will be primarily decided not by responsible political office holders but by irresponsible local bosses. This accounts for the enormous waste of personnel in American politics.There is in fact no career that directly leads to the most important political position the president.The goverorship of a state or a name known long in politics can be a stepping stone to the white washed house. It is even harder to make generally valid statements on the training of American bosses. But if he secures command of the active voters in the precinct, it gives him control to distribute spoils. Then he is on his way to political power. One important feature of modern dictatorship is its extension of monopolistic control over the body politic to the oncoming generation.
With the industrialization of the late 19th and early 20th centuries along side democratic nations the mass man begins to be heard and be herded by the autocratic dictators and corporate capitalists. The surplus laborer was the infantry soldier of the industrialized world wars. The social and political crises of modern society crystallized in the cities and seemed to find there in the common man its first focal point. They called for a voice in political discussions. The fact that the propertyless Masses did not have a stake in society was why the urban man was often disregarded by the wealth elite of landowners.
In modern industrialized society where work by necessity became mechanized, monotonous, and emptied of all creative value separation of civilization and work weighed especially on the class that had nothing to sell but its labor. Occupation stood for nothing but a way of earning ones living truly burdensome in the view of the autocratic control by industrial management. Thus the fight against the machine was a struggle to emerge above subsistence in the capitalistic world. But because of industrialization the urban laborer received a semi-permanent classification similar to the serf in the medieval society where the urban laborer is allocated into a caste-like hereditary status. But the urban laborer has nothing to lose but his chains.
As rural and immigrant migration began to fill the cities the industrial laborer found himself dislocated from family, social groups, and the very presence of nature which the concrete jungle cannot spare a plot for Even a tree the laborer found himself among many different people and perhaps found himself to be just a Part of a emotionless machine. The sobering and socializing experiences of factory life and urban behaviors in general where competitive and restless hermits fight for their daily meals. The literature of Karl Marx and Charles Darwin helped to dispel superstitions and help to awaken the common to the gross unequally of civilization.
The destruction or downsizing of the middle class or bureaucratic class of personnel led to the mass defection and restfulness of the pre-WWII period. Small business similar to the artisan class of the medieval city was being erased by industrialized manufacturing. Large-scale production, big department stores, and Banking mergers were indeed the capitalism of the monopoly state grown bureaucratic and was steadily weakening the independent middle class. In reaction against such emptiness in life and work, they fled into a dream world of movie glamour. It had to give them what they missed in daytime. This escape novel like reality was taken very seriously and people could either identify or hope to reach the status of the characters portrayed in the media culture of fiction. Amusing, as this respect for the imaginary life of the screen was this desire revealed a disturbing phenomenon of our days the depersonalization of individuals.And this film and later television industry would later be a perfect viechile for the export of propaganda and commercialization of the impressionable mass.
The nationalization of the masses grew out of the extreme loneliness of urban man and the rites and symbols of the new glamorous political entities where everyone could find a home in the patriotic family.To make this surrender to the dictator complete the neurotic age of WWI and the armistice period was needed. Only the societies that had undergone catastrophic experiences of a total crisis were ripe for the radical extinction of independent individuality and autonomous group life.
The individual mob member is inclined to display specific characteristics of an immature person, and like a child is completely dependent upon his environment for his well-being and inner equilibrium. The result is his self-identification with the group in which he is submerged. In a way, this phenomenon of mob existence is the counter and complement to anarchic man who has thrown off the natural and fruitful balance between well-integrated personality and free society. This complete submission to the group at the same time shuts out the outside world. Such an inclusion of counter-propaganda indeed simplifies life, it stabilizes cultural norms, and it guarantees well-predictable actions.
The psychological effects of such surrender are obvious. It is the strength of self-contained individuality that it recognizes in its own particularity the right of everyone to differ from everyone else. It makes for moderation, open-mindedness, restraint, and tolerance. The mob deprived of individuality is egocentric, prejudiced, and fanatical.
Mob psychology when it seizes a whole nation destroys the web of its complex social structure. Like the individual differentiations of its members, so the innumerable associations of the living community are melted into one grey mass. This process of massificationthe dissolution of free organizations, the flattening of the social pyramid in a way preceded the rise of modern dictators. They were the products of this disintegration of society that became the basis of their established rule.
The classes which had lost their social characteristics, which had been emptied of substance and deprived of forms, became the human material of a political revolution, the essence of which was the institutionalization of the amorphous masses,because modern dictatorship in its sociological meaning is nothing but the substitution of crowds for society. Thus it represents a unique phenomenon thats decisively novel and the great challenge to social order. The transformation of the spontaneous social groups of a pluralistic society into the totalitarian mass state is the real background of fascism.
The end of independent man obliterates any private sphere for his existence. Civil rights and constitutional guarantees become meaningless. The distinction between state and society prerequisite of democracy is definitely dissolved. The aim and essence of the revolutionary post-war movements is the pulverization of all autonomous groups (the family included) into an inarticulate crowd which permanently in need of a tyrannical leader is kept together only if moved and satisfied emotionally. It must be dynamic therefore and it cannot be appeased. This is the basis of the modern state of the massesIts success in assault, however, presupposes a long undermining process and the inner destruction of social order.
The crisis strata of society a shifting new middle class a rootless unemployed and a warlike militia are the first lines of dictatorial attack. They have one element in common they are negatively united, they do not fit into the rational scheme of the 19th century. These new masses throwing their fate into politics are above all irrational in their reaction
Mussolini was quoted as saying "When I feel the mass in my hands as it yields or when I mix it there it almost crushes me. Then I feel but a lump of that mass and yet there remains in me something of hostility, like the distaste that the poet feels against the matter on which he is working. Does not the sculptor sometimes break the marble in ire because it does not take under his hands."? And Hitler was a bit more sexual as he said,"Like a woman" he says "whose psychic feeling is influenced less by abstract reasoning than by an undefinable sentimental longing For complementary strength, who will submit to the strong man rather than dominate the weakling, thus the masses love the ruler rather than the suppliant and inwardly they are far more satisfied by a doctrine which tolerates no rival than by a grant of liberal freedom they often feel at a loss what to do with it and even easily feel themselves deserted".
In a democracy however there persists an absolute unwillingness to give up the search for truth and the freedom of choice in the knowledge of good and evil. These different views on the mass following are not alone a philosophical concern of divergent political systems. They also find concrete expression in the respective party organizations in the techniques of propaganda promotion and in the creation of symbols.
A one-party system is a contradiction in itself. Only the coexistence of at least one competitive group makes a political party real. To become a party to something always means identification with one group and differentiation from another. Every party in its essence signifies partnership in a particular organization and separation from others by a specific program. Political parties furthermore presuppose active participation in politics, or at least an attempt at and a chance for participation. The vitality of its party system thus becomes a test for the stability of a social and political order. The strength of the Anglo-Saxon party system is largely founded upon a basic national unity that makes the differentiations in of political groups (differences in degree and not in kind.)
The interdependence of political parties with the fate of the political whole is the result of their politicalcharacter. Political they are not only because of their claim to political power, but even more on account of the fulfillment of their essentially political function. Organizing the chaotic public will has been often stated as a primary task of political parties.They bring order out of the chaos of a multitude of voters(lord Bryce). They are brokers of ideas, clarifying, systematizing, and expounding their doctrine.
Representatives of social interest groups, they bridge the distance between the individual and the great community. They maximize in the competitive scheme of at least a two-party system the voters education and sharpen his freechoice. The coexistence of a competitor, therefore, is of paramount importance to an effective democratic party system which presupposes that the final choice will reflect the reasonable decision of a free electorate.
The political parties make the voters choose between the lesser of two evils thus forcing political differentiations into a few major channels. But political parties often have the same self-servicing goals of greed and often do not make issues of things that really need changes.
After the seizure of power the dictatorial party has three main functions: It creates the political elite, It controls and educates the masses, It maintains communication between state and society.
The dictatorial party becomes the essential organ of the regime. The symbols of the party are adopted as emblems of the state. Becoming entrenched into the fabric of society The political party is in essence an autocratic or oligarchy where only the wealthy can participate in the functions of government.As the party becomes the substitute for the state membership takes on a religious character and fanaticism becomes the most significant feature of the zealous followers. Above all the fascist party is the asserter of a new faith in an infidel world. It creates all the essential attitudes and institutions: the readiness to battle, militancy, discipline, the hierarchy of the party, and the warlike obedience to orders from above, these features cannot be removed from the fascist party which then becomes the creator of the garrison state.Because of real or presumed dangers defense organizations are created to protect the country from the enemy that the aggressive foreign polices have created.
The strict hierarchical order of military and bureaucratic Structures enables the dictator to have complete control of party members. Rewards for duties done well or even disclosing information about other members lets the person rise higher in the pyramid of organization. The supreme party organ is the policy-making agency and the state offices are degraded to the mere execution of policies decided in the partiesinner shadowy circles. Thus the dictatorial Hierarchy is fortified from below and made real by meeting and controlling its members in their day to day pursuits.
Fascism represents intermarriage of conservative nationalism and radical syndicalism. As a matter of fact the leaders of fascist movements make their coalition partners believe that their radical lingo was meant only for mass consumption and could be easily discarded when the hour of statesmanship has arrived.
The control and education of the people becomes the primary task of the dictatorial party. The dictatorial state is a super-machine and one may be easily lost in the labyrinth of its interlining schemes. The Rigid state centralization a precondition for autocratic rule helps to suppress any competitive forces. The appearance of choice in a two party system is still a monopoly when the Electoral College chooses for the people their new leader. The preservation of a two party system is but a hollow fascade on a decaying institution. True all these functions are only seemingly real. But the peoples popular vote for president a substitute for the real election is generally accepted and people are impressed by the unity of the dictators nation. In fact representationin dictatorship is intimately connected with propaganda.
Representation in a capitalistic feudal style of democracy of the United States only extends to the autocratic heredity elite class and the highest bidding lobbing interests. Under dictatorship the peoples ballot becomes a useful weapon to make the masses want what the leader want.
Bureaucratic macheriny is the very core of modern government. The long process of applying for personal aid, the mainentence of roads, monuments, parks, national reserves, the zoning of land for commercial usage, the license of drivers and professional service makers all these and more are increasingly tied to the hierarchical structure of red-tape and pork barrel favoritism. This top-heavy bureaucracy slows and disables citizens from receiving the attention that every one deserves. This bureaucratic desk governmenthas taken control of governmental action.
The habit patterns of the bureaucrat are being efficient and expertness (though often routinized, unimaginative, and lacking in initiative), fear of rash undertakings, objectivity, and impersonality.
The totalitarian machine coordinates all with the one and only political will and always rewards their favorites and henchmen with positions in the hierarchy. Vigilance is always necessary for the permanent revolutionbecause the nation in armsalways considers itself in a constant state of war, yet all such control can be sufficiently exercised by the state and its machinery. The state is the absolute in relation to which all individuals and groups are relative. As dictatorships take control remaining bureaucrats had to give up independent political judgement where as they gain power in actual control of the territorial possessions of the mad dictators.
The extent of state management in modern dictatorship is evidenced by the fact that this new autocracy does not stop at political control but carries its power into the field of economics. The state is a law unto itself and in fact there is no autonomous sphere left to economics. The government can inflate the currency, set wages and prices, and in essence can decide your standard of life for you. Autocratic consolidation of agriculture, manufacturing and services has created a monopolistic infrastructure that only enriches the few at the expense of the many. The mobilization of the war economy increases monopolistic control of varied industries.
The crisis of modern society has often been laid to the lag between technical development and social organization. This discrepancy, indeed, easily leads to the victory of machine over man. Instead of being a tool, the machine becomes the driving force in society. An overgrown machine may destroy our civilization, which seems to be losing control over its creation.
That technology can furnish the acquiring and directing of knowledge and no less the control of social organization is the overlooked and undervalued aspect of todays world. Free society has to be on guard from the dictators and autocratic elements that use technology to curtail and take away peoples rights.
The breakdown of the free economy under depression and toward the setup of a planned war economy is a tragedy history shows perpetuates itself. Totalitarianism is by nature parasitic and predatory and significantly enough the economics of the military state preys upon its citizens to support itself. A war economy is an economy of scarcity. It compensates for loss of liberty with economic security even if under reduced living standards.
The modern autocrat is the master of a political machine because his rule is based upon strong organization. The modern autocrats Collectivity control economic, political, religious, and mass media information distribution to the public. The network of property and institutional organization is based upon a hierarchical structure where Almost all of society is arranged for the control of the poor elements in a nation.Even normal citizens are encouraged to perform services which should be provided by the government.The people being stirred by propaganda will easily jump to serve a corrupt and over stretched system.In April 2005 private citizens are beginning to patrol the US-Mexican Border because of unauthorized entry into the US of poor Mexicans. This recounts the "Brown-Shirted SS" of Nazi Germany a grass root citizen organization which was but a brute weapon for the government. These Citizens belive this is a "selfless act of a patroit" but in reality this is a attempt to replace a overstretched military & national guard who are serving in the imperalistic military operations overseas.Little are US citizens aware that the "Nafta" and other free trade agreements have forced these poor Mexicans to seek a better life in the United States and this situation can be placed easily upon Americans Capitalists who "outsource" labor Jobs and lobby the government for unfettered access to cheap raw materials & labor in foreign nations. Take note also the overextension of the Nazi's military in WWII led to the collapse & defeat of that nation.
The relation of state to church in dictatorships is a question of power politics and political strategy. The sweep of modern totalitarianism has to clash with the church. No compromise is possible. The dictatorial party in itself represents a church that competes for the souls of its adherents. Modern dictatorships are political religions.The state of Israel in the Middle East is the marriage of religion and politics. Under the racial superior Zionist program the Hebrewstate has copied the nazi tacit of concentration of unwanted nationalities. The Arabic Palestinians are murdered often as to wonder why these Semitic peoples cannot get along. The Right-winged Republican Party has aligned with fanatical religious organizations to support this 21st century colonialist state building. The United States has shed the economic stick our military base into your country and allow us to trade our worthless shit for your scarce natural resource policy, for outright nation building. This regression of American morality in empire building and her fascist based ideals is a shame and will lead too much useless death.
As the United States government and religious organizations both support the partition of the Middle East this 21st century decent into a crusade like war will be remembered and disgusted by civilized human beings everywhere. The Nazi style torture and propaganda used by the United States is appalling for the lack of original thought put into this war on terror. The majority of the United States is brainwashed or apathetic to the evil designs of the US of A.
The violent and sexual media culture of the United States has begun to dehumanize the so-called civilized Americans.The right wing religious elements want to outlaw abortion and thus increase the birthrate.The United States heading into the 21st century is programming the population for "total war". With the environment becoming unstable and fossil fuels dwindling the earth is becoming a small place indeed.The totalitarian state which claims the complete and all embracing control of human existence must therefore seize power over this family the nucleus of all organizations. All dictatorships want large armies.Moreover, all of them deny the right to a private life. Everyone belongs to the community the community has to decide upon the size of the family the education and the daily activities of each memberThis development within the basic unit of social life is indicative of the definite dissolution of separate spheres for private and public life. There is no private existence left to the individual. Indeed the absorption of the private sphere by the state may be regarded as one of the crucial elements of modern dictatorship.
The war of poverty
When the right-winged revolution occurs the foremost battle begins at home and the suppression of the mass by the creation of poverty is a dictators ally. The widing gap between the rich and poor is widened and the middle class is always in transit. This new order creates the atmosphere where the call to war is the only escape from the monotony of daily existence.
The anti-individualistic and anti-intellectual mass is programmed to accept the war densification and the physical stamina program. When the whole education system is embarked for war. The liberal elements of the preceding system is abandoned. There is no truth for truths sake. This complete change in academic atmosphere is not adequately reflected in the numerical losses of the scholars who could not be coordinated and hence had to go. This corruption of the young generations mind to be filled with aggressiveness and hatred is systematically built up to remember the past glory filled conflicts and cast their eyes toward the future where the hour of death and destruction awaits.
The institutional framework is held together by a system of interlocking fears. And in order to avoid the possibility that the terror created by the dictator might finally catch up with its originators modern dictatorships have institutionalized terror in the creation of the secret police. The fear of the enemy and war is the most important factor in social integration. The struggle of existence fear of livingleads to civil and military organization and control and into the unknown realm where the fear of the dead becomes the basis of religious control. Thus the importance of fear as an organizing principle in society is nothing new. But what dictatorships realize is that if a certain degree of horror is reached mans physical resistance and moral personalities vanish. Such a process can be advanced especially well in time of unrest, the aftermath of war, the breakdown of economic security, and the destruction of social institutions. A strategy of terror applied against the crisis strata of society may accomplish miracles, and has done so in the establishment and preservation of modern dictatorships.
The rise of modern dictatorships is no doubt closely related to an abnormal climate of personal and social tensions that invites the liberation of frustration by aggression. This phenomenon has frequently been observed in the field of modern criminology. In order to survive dictatorships have to secure the all-inclusive control of all agencies. Out of fear for their own survival. It is therefore the idea procedure for a dictatorship to find a definite scapegoat classes. The totalitarian state has to develop an atmosphere of vague though ever-present terror. This fact faces the system with an obvious dilemma. While it has to impress the general public with its all inclusive control and intimidating sternness, its efficiency depends on the creation of a cheerful readiness of seemingly free people. This obvious difficulty explains why the scientific terrorof the modern dictatorship has to be much more subtle than the cruelty of earlier primitive types of government.Yet the survival of this system depends on institutionalized terror the man of today is deeply afraid of suffering but he is always ready to die.
Where ever human society exists there is propaganda i.e.: a conscious attempt to control the attitudes of others and consequently to manage their actions. Propaganda has always played a important role in politics. Governments have invariably recognized their dependence upon public opinion, and have therefore realized the import of opinion leadership. t is only on opinion that government is founded. Because modern governments develop an atmosphere of stifled public opinion that does not give free expression to grievances, they must diagnose the peoples soul with almost scientific precision. Ministers of propaganda (Office of homeland security) serve as listening posts with their ears on to the ground they must sense dissension before it grows in strength.
Current events are created by writers who put spin on these events, One story could be written three ways As contemporary journalism, a sermon, or a chill down the spine. In the world of modern history creation, there are three main groups of people: Writers, participants, observers and scholars. Participants as being directly involved in the action unconsciencily will spread their propangda like opinion. The observers are all fact finders and most certainly will have to pass or circumvent stringent censorship in obtaining and delivering the facts. This public opinion is formed by exposure to mass media mediums. Television, radio, newsprint, and books format the impressionable brain of an individual to the acceptance of polices and opinion. Daily news reports build stories and characters of world politicians, media celebrities, and religious figures. This education of the mass is a powerful tool in the Engineering of public opinions.
The masterminds of mass seduction are no doubt skilled in propaganda have become road pavers to power in modern governments. Yet in order to exert influence this modern magician must answer, justly or not grievances which people profoundly feel and at least he must break down their resistance against his inducements. In this respect political propaganda, is no more miraculous than commercial advertising.
Propaganda derived meaning from the College of Propaganda that was instituted by Urban VIII in the early 17th century to educate priests for missions to propagate the catholic faith. To stand on its convictions is no less the final testing of effective propaganda today.
With the long arm of modern media propaganda and commercial advertising is behind every corner of the entertainment broadcast world. If you run into someone who is not briefed on the major league sport world politics, music entertainment, or television programming you must have greeted a person who could not speak English or one of the few who do not waste time absorbing the useless broadcasting messages.
Television programming is the direct education of the family in the behaviors of mating, child behavior modification, and preferred commodity purchasing habits. Children and adults who journey to school and employment places often relate the diverse programming broadcasts to one another to ensure the cross platform absorption of the brainwashing and the cultural creation of the ethnicless US stereotype.
The abundance of information and misinformation in itself demands an increasing degree of selectivity on the part of democracies responsible citizens. Indeed the constant need for forming opinions cannot keep pace with the supply of information on which opinions are demanded. The greater the supply, the more difficult it may easily become to form balanced opinions. Yet this is a vital problem for democracy, for its stability depends primarily on the development of a public opinion able to cope intelligently with the problems of our day. In fact the pioneer farmer of a century ago was probably much better informed on the problems of his age than are many educated people nowadays on the issues that face our decadent civilization. Public opinion is raised to its highest intensity when old patterns of behavior are breaking down. People are ready to accept new ideas they are open to suggestion they are then receptive to propaganda. Propaganda is aimed to the total conquest of the man in the street.
Numerous attempts have been made to find a clear-cut distinction between education and propaganda. The latter has been defined as the spreads of controversial attitudes, the former, as the spread of controversial attitudes, the former, as the spread of axiomatic facts, accepted attitudes, and skills. Furthermore it has been said that education aims at independence of judgement, while propaganda offers ready made opinions. In this sense the educator aims at a slow process of development, and the propagandist at quick results. The educator tries to tell people how to think, the propagandist, what to think.
It may be advisable to consider rules and even curbs against unfair propaganda practices in the new race for public opinion control. The constant debate for political campaign finance laws would stop the wholesale of the peoples will for the limited aims of corporation, military, and autocratic selfish interests. The dictatorships view human beings as undecided and uncertain and in bitter need of strong leadership that will force upon them uncompromising conclusions.
The alarming loneliness of the individual in the modern machine age is always overwhelmed and suffocated by the masses and degraded to a number in monster concerns and enterprises, Is made an asset in the fascist arsenal. A unity of individuals who do not think for themselves ceases to be a unity and tends to become a pure monologue and monodeed in a monoculture of reckless stupidity. A resocialization of adults through media manipulation becomes the main task of modern propaganda.
When all cultural activities are organized by law into a corporation of professions then entry is strictly controlled by stature. This guarantees not only centralization of power but at the same time the mobilization of the whole field of national culture. The modern leaders of the people must be the modern kings of the people. This would be the driving force behind George bushs II contested election. The handful of feudal politicians seemingly elevated him as a arrogant display of political control.
There are seven well known devices of modern propaganda-name-calling, glittering generalities, transfer device, testimonials, plain-folk device, card-stacking, and band wagon technique. Repetition and simplification of messages impresses these messages in the memory of the brain. The pictures in the head of highly stereotyped images is the goal of the propagandist. Continuity and absolute uniformity of statement promise success in advertising. All effective propaganda therefore has to confine itself to a few points that must be repeated eternally. The big eye has to be caught the great heart aroused then the small mind will follow. The appeal to emotions is the expedient in the manipulation of the rootless masses. The mass meeting or the great rally is the visible collection of people as to impress the belongingto a group mentality. The spoken word is respected as a powerful weapon for demagogical propaganda and in fact is preferred to written propaganda
Modern life has become so immense and incalculable so complicated and differentiated that people are grateful to have it interpreted in a simple manner that does not involve too much intellectual exertion on their part. The possibilities of renouncing all intellectual ballast, all spiritual preconceptions brought about a new age of rhetoric. Rhetoric is a modern form of slavery. The masses-liberated in the last century to a literate existence-have remained intellectually illiterate. Motion pictures are their chief form of entertainment. Even the books they read are written in a movie like manner. Impressionistic and full of action, they appeal to the senses more than to the brain.The spoken word unquestionably reaches a much larger group than does the written. Speeches appeal in a more direct way to the emotions of the masses, and constitutes more effective propaganda.
Symbols always stand for something else. Symbols guarantee the solidarity of the community and define the situation for the individual. They create for him images of the supernatural, and they hold him in allegiance to his social group as well. The flag the national anthem, the national hero, the very existence of institutions symbolize and guarantee the stability of a prevailing value system. In fact symbolic leadership such as the institution of the monarchy arouses the envy of many dynamic dictatorships. Such symbols are priceless they stand outside the heated party controversy and thus epitomize the nations unity and solidarity. The renewed predominance of symbols in our time is the storm sign of a period of transition whose revolutionary cycle is indicated by this succession of symbols. Dynamic symbols are the mark of modern totalitarianism always on the march that never ends and incessantly at war with a world that it cannot possess.
The dictatorship are governments at war originating in war,aiming at war, thriving on war. Fascist dictatorships are bound for expansion, war is unseparable from their meaning. And that means the definite end of peace and international morality. The worlds capacity for horror has been dulled since 1914. Against that tragic precedent human life has lost its value. The impact of the First World War on society was manifest. The nearer it approached total dimensions the deeper it affected every sphere of social existence. Wars supreme efforts necessitated swift action and firm integration, disciplined regimentation and tight centralization. Institutions had to be streamlined and individuals turned into robots. In the baptism of fire certain moral standards were tested anew and well-established social concepts redefined.
The effect of WWI on the succession of generations tells a story of grief and upheaval. The conflict of generations dramatizes and brings into bold relief and intricate social process. It discloses the psychological roots of totalitarianism. Besides it calls attention to a crucial though strangely neglected field of investigation. It may suggest some concrete illustration of human motivation
The industrial revolution has brought about a general change in living conditions in such short periods that the amount of changes that take place in 30 years would equal the amount of changes taking place for a period of 300 years in preindustrial times. Today modern technology is taken for granted and fathers and sons but older and younger people speak a different language. And have different standards.
Such discrepancies are even more noticeable when the continuity of generations is suddenly broken-as has happened at the time of WWI. The war not only clearly separated the pre-war and post-war periods, but also meant the weakening if not elimination, of a entire generation. The link was broken. The normal succession of generations was disturbed. The elders had to carry on. The younger generation did not grow slowly and naturally into existing institutions. There was no apprenticeship because there was no apprentices. Yet the existence of the craft of modern statesmanship depends on a long tradition always renewed and rejuvenated by a succeeding generation.
What is a generation? What makes people members of the same age group? It is not simply coexistence in the same period. Different generations live together in the same chronological time. Contemporaries are not merely people born in the same year. Biological birthrates are a starting point. And outward approximation for sociological differentiation. What identifies people as belonging to one generation is decided by their common experiences, the same decisive influences, and similar historic problems.
The First World War divided generations. There was a pre-war generation born before 1890.Their education was finished, and their lives were formed before the war began. For these older people the war signified catastrophe the destruction of their lives, work and accomplishments. Those who survived this storm tried to return to a world in which they had lived before. They tried to forget the war and those unsettling experiences. The younger generation was a great formative experience.. Admirable or brutal , it was in their blood .It could never leave them. These children of the war were called upon to make post-war history.
What the whole of Europe experienced during the post WWI was the rule of old people. The war had destroyed the flower of oncoming leadership and a pre-war generation tried to fill the gap. These older people came from another world. The age distribution of the German Reichstag gives a striking picture of the situation as late as 1930 the average age was 57 and the average age of economic leaders was 60.
Responsibility for the tension rested upon both generations Fathers had reason to be suspicious of sons who did not follow their path. Sons who fought for their elders, who had protected their home and property, and had endured and suffered for four years at the front called this cool reception ingratitude. They felt excluded from life. Thus the generation of young fighters became a tragic generation of outsiders. One may wonder behind the mask of cynicism and gloom there was not actually a great readiness for social action among this young war generation. The simple fact of their living together through daily danger had blurred social lines and classifications and had brought about a great mingling of classes that in any previous period and had thus created a comradeship of the front.
The leaders of the German National Socialist movement or the fascist an nazi form of government were all greatly transformed by the First World War and the loss of that war left a generation of veterans who when they succeeded to take government control would find no use for the civic or non-military elements of government. All the leaders were born between 1890-1900. Hitler (1889), Goering (1893), Hess (1891), Goebbels (1897), Himmler (1900), Ley (1890). Exceptions such as Lammers (1879), Frick (1877) indicate the influx of an expert group which was desperately needed by the new government but did not represent its driving force. It is no less significant that all non-national socialist cabinet members belonged to a older generation such as Von Neurath (1873), Von Papen (1879), Hugenberg (1865), Meissner (1880).
The years following the national revolution brought the slow but constant elimination of these pre-war statesmen. All the basic concepts of national socialist government have been shaped by the experience of war. Fully militarized social relationships had been basically experienced on the battlefield. No concept of civil government was to remembered or provided for.
The fact of overage was visible in the democratic nation of Great Britain. For the leading actors on the British political stage could be shown that the average age at entry into Parliament before the World War was 29 and after the war 38.If they succeeded in entering the cabinet it was at the age of 43 and 50 respectively. If they attained Premiership 57 and 62 respectively. Such delay showed a lack of a war generation ready to steer the future government.
In the lengthening shadow of war the dictator looms. They are exploiters of a World Revolution. Governments created for war. The analysis of their inner structure, national differentiations notwithstanding, has proved conclusively that the permanent revolution of perpetual motion is the driving force of totalitarianism. Expansion is of its essence .The rise, development, and survival of modern dictatorship is inextricably tied up with continuous dynamics.
The crisis in international affairs was threefold: political, economic, and spiritual. Integral nationalism, economic imperialism, and moral anarchy had created the latent tensions of the pre-war unrest. These causes have been raised to central importance as fundamental causes of the First World War. The following peace settlement had been a sincere attempt to solve these international problems. They were carried into the ensuing Armistice period and indeed presented its main themes. Failure of a definite solution finally led to the Second World War. Which in this sense is only a continuation of an old conflict.
The last three decades must be conceived as an essential unit, perhaps as a second Thirty Years War (1618-1648), in which latent issues of the preceding period (religious issues) have come to a climax and must eventually lead to a final answer. The emergence of modern dictatorships must likewise be seen in greater perspective if their challenge is to be rightly understood and fully answered.
After the First World War, the withdrawal of the United States from Europe, her refusal to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and to participate actively in the peace settlement undoubtedly was a blow from which this new feeble order never recovered. The world war had definitely changed the old balance between Europe and the United States and had shifted the weight toward the new creditor nation of the world (USA).
But the pre-war concept of two isolated continents still prevailed on both sides of the Atlantic at a time when the global economic and political organizations of interdependence was beginning to crystallize.The creation of fascism first in Italy in the 20's and later in Germany in the 30's was a resonance to Economic failures of the indebted war economies to rebuild a civilian styled market. The other and most remembered reason would be to counter the Russian Bolshevism. The fear of communism destroying western democracies from below was a major reason the western democracies stood by while fascism grew to be a buffer between the communist east and the democratic west.
In international affairs the crisis first appeared in finance. In 1931 The Austrian Credit Institute or the (Kredit Ansalt) failed and was the first victim of the international depression. Followed closely by a German banking crisis in July 1931 and the break in the British pound in august. The privately owned Bank of England, which had heavily financed the Austrian institution, had to withstand a drain on its own resources. The effect of the European crisis was felt everywhere. The worlds chief creditor was also thrown in turmoil, the great American depression set in.
Of course, It would be utterly misleading to view this worldwide crisis as a economic alone. The major social threat-millions of unemployed-had unheard of political implications. This was the hour of birth for rootless radicalism. This fatal transformation brought the nations that were hardest hit close to civil war. with entrenched private and corporation armies revolution was looming. In foreign affairs understanding compromise and adjustment were gone. It was a period of a last hopeless attempt at new formulas, but the faith in formulas had lost its spell and they were presented without enthusiasm.
The Japanese invasion of China in 1931 was the beginning of a new international crisis. As Europe was submersed in a depression the Chinese were abandoned. Mussolini capitalizing on the Far East lesson soon began the Italo-Ethiopian War. His dream of rebuilding the Roman Empire was given along with the exportation of fascism to their northern cousins Germany.Germanys economic activities of this period was circumventing the banking problem and restitution problems. Trade to the Balkans for urgently needed raw materials in exchange for industrial products guaranteed the ability to rearm without obligations. These ingenious barter treaties were introduced and Austria was the first to sign in 1931.Germanys exports to Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Greece increased by 260 % in the first four years of nazi rule. Imports in that period increased by 190%.
Permanent Revolution "Totalitarianism in the age of international civil war" Sigmund Neumann, Prager University Press, NY, 1942
Sigmund Neumann was born in Leipzig in 1904 where he received his P.H.D. in 1927.He was a professor of history and political science before the Nazis came to power. In 1934 Neumann was appointed a member of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He was also a frequent visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, Columbia and other leading institutions of higher learning. This book Permanent Revolution First printed in 1942 before the war was decided in the favor of the Allies, this book gives the reader Precise definitions for the dictatorship and propaganda style techniques. The allusions to the fascist character of the Modern Republican USA has been inserted by this web page author and a reading through the text will show similar traits inherited by modern institutional organizations for population control. A Important topic for the post 9-11-01 world, the totalitarian state and dictatorial revolutions, need to be studied by concerned citizens of all nations throughout the world.
