Thoughts from Helsinki

The 5 Pillars of Totalitarism

I remember a book about totalitarism I ve read a while ago but I dont recall the name of the author.

Nevertheless, it described 5 common attributes that political systems have when they fall into totalitarist behaviours :

- Ideology
All fascist regime are based on one simplistic ideology, with the backing of appointed ideologues. I note that most are mixed with a strong nationalism and sometimes it s religious.

- Cult of personality
The head of state is often represented as the symbolic father of the nation, or the protector of the country s unity. There are picture of him in the street with no particular intent than to implement the cult of personality (not only for elections).

- Control of the Media
In one hand journalists who dont comply to the official political line, are harrassed or even killed, while their newspaper can be closed arbitrarily. In the other hand there are strong ties (like ownership) between important media and politicians from the power in place.

- Police State
The police resource is used heavily to watch people private life in order to find or harrass dissidents.

- High Military Spendings
A significant part of the budjet goes to military spendings.

posted by Adel Bedral @ 11:22 AM