Author: Amir Ban
Date: 07:21:45 09/08/98
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On September 08, 1998 at 09:40:23, Robert Henry Durrett wrote: >On September 08, 1998 at 02:28:48, Bruce Moreland wrote: ><snip> > > to*tal*i*tar*i*an*ism (noun) >>> >>>First appeared 1926 >>> >>> 1 : centralized control by an autocratic authority >>> >>> 2 : the political concept that the citizen should be totally subject to an >>>absolute state authority >> >>If I recall, you said that the idea of banning someone for an unspecified period >>was totalitarian. >> >>I think this is an odd use of this word, which is an incredibly strong word. I >>was merely asking you to reflect upon this word selection, in the hopes that you >>would agree that this wasn't the right word, and would choose another. >> >>bruce > >Yup! That's what is was when I was a child at home. It was >to*tal*i*tar*i*an*ism (noun) all right. But I just didn't know the right word >for it. If I did something really bad, I got spanked for it. My parent was an >"absolute authority," and I learned to accept that. She often said "there is no >democracy in this household." "You either behave or you get spanked." We were >never allowed to debate the issue. We were never given a chance to vote on it >either. If we were bad, and we knew what would happen: spank! spank! spank! >It's that simple. Of course, she did not chop our heads off, either. [Of >course, that was before we learned how to play chess. After that, we were never >bad.] I don't know if this is what Bruce is complaining about, but here's what I know about the word "totalitarianism": What you probably wanted to say was "dictatorial", "absolutism", "autocratic", "despotic", "tyrannical" or a few other words with the same meanings. These words are old, and they describe very old forms of government. "Totalitarianism" is a 20th century word which was first used by Mussolini to describe his Fascist state, and later was used (more accurately) to describe Stalin's USSR, Hitler's Germany, and Mao's China. It was probably described most accurately in Orwell's "1984". An autocrat is someone who is content with absolute power and political obedience by his subjects. To the totalitarian, this is not enough. He needs total control over every aspect of the citizen's behavior, indeed over his thoughts. A totalitarian state does not demand passive obedience but active complicity. Not an accurate description of CCC, or even of your parents. Amir
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