carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes) (09/18/85)
In article <7800427@inmet.UUCP> janw@inmet.UUCP writes: >I cannot speak for Ari Gross, BUT if you ever see a country where >pre-schoolers are militarized and singing slogans in sweet unison, >you can bet your subscription to Pravda :-) that here is yet >another implementation of a familiar model of government. The >country can be called the USSR, nazi Germany, or Cuba, or Ni- >caragua, and the slogans may differ, but the political structure, >the "technology of power" varies remarkably little. You forgot IBM. OK, Jan, we'll bite: What is the political model shared by the USSR, Cuba, Nicaragua, Nazi Germany, and Big Blue? Oh, I get it, you mean statism = socialism = communism = fascism = authoritarianism = totalitarianism = dictatorship = benevolent despotism = oligarchy = absolute monarchy = syndicalism = theocracy = tyranny = slavery = conscription = democracy = taxation = theft. *That* political model. -- --- Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes
janw@inmet.UUCP (09/22/85)
/* Written 11:18 am Sep 18, 1985 by carnes@gargoyle in inmet:net.politics.t */ > >I cannot speak for Ari Gross, BUT if you ever see a country where > >pre-schoolers are militarized and singing slogans in sweet unison, > >you can bet your subscription to Pravda :-) that here is yet > >another implementation of a familiar model of government. The > >country can be called the USSR, nazi Germany, or Cuba, or Ni- > >caragua, and the slogans may differ, but the political structure, > >the "technology of power" varies remarkably little. > You forgot IBM. OK, Jan, we'll bite: What is the political model > shared by the USSR, Cuba, Nicaragua, Nazi Germany, and Big Blue? Oh, > I get it, you mean statism = socialism = communism = fascism = > authoritarianism = totalitarianism = dictatorship = benevolent > despotism = oligarchy = absolute monarchy = syndicalism = theocracy = > tyranny = slavery = conscription = democracy = taxation = theft. > *That* political model. You misunderstood completely. I was speaking of the totalitarian model of government. The isomorphism (structural identity) between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia has always fascinated me. Here are two regimes with quite different ideologies, brought to power by different social groups, in two dissimilar cultures, yet as alike as two peas in a pod, and growing even more alike the longer they existed. And quite *unlike* any repressive regime before 1917. I see this as one of the central facts of this century, and a challenge to any political theorist. To my mind, it disproves, for example, both Solzhenitsyn's explanation of Communism as something produced by Marxist ideology, and Richard Pipes's explanation of it as something flowing from a thousand years of Russian history. I believe totalitarianism to be an *invention*, as specific to the 20th century as television or atom bomb. It is a perfect machine for its purpose, which is to permit the group in power to stay in power. Once perfected, it is imported by country after country. This has no connection whatever with the libertarian controversy on this net. On net.politics, I made several postings developing this theme. I welcome sarcasm and caricature, but you must admit this time you've been off the mark. Jan Wasilewsky