06-21-2021, 10:29 PM
Again, the pattern that I have suggested of putting the most fanatical and intolerant on the periphery suggests where the potential totalitarian butchers are. If not the thinkers themselves, then certainly the followers. The Paris Commune showed portents, but Marxism-Leninism left no question that Marxism could be interpreted as a rationale for mass killing of 'obsolete' people. Ayn Rand may be the diametric opposite in giving all power to the economic elites, but that could result in economic elites deciding to 'cull' the 'worthless' and 'ungrateful' with mass hunger. She may have seen her plutocratic ideal as the greatest thing possible for human progress, but such progress would come through suffering that millions would resist. The observation that my brother has of recognizing that people who devote the time to reading and absorbing Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead become insufferable a$$holes for at least six months (probably after which time reality sets in) gives some clues on how a society dedicated to principles of Ayn Rand would look if there were some powerful body to guide thought and social life along her principles. See Marxist regimes for how that works.
The centripetal edge for terror and repression may serve as if a dimension.
The centripetal edge for terror and repression may serve as if a dimension.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.