Word: totalitarian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...road from a boot in the face to what the Hungarians call goulash Communism is long. It is also challenging because it raises fundamental questions about the nature of totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is about the perfection of power, the centralization of control. In the face of imperfection and devolution, what happens to the totalitarian idea...
...term totalitarian, first used in the late '20s, was not fully developed until the late '40s and early '50s, when a classical literature arose describing a new kind of tyranny created in this century. What made totalitarianism unique was its militant, messianic ideology; its mobilization of the masses; its total control of social life (all independent "intermediate" structures -- such as churches, parties, unions -- standing between the individual and the state were to be eradicated); and its systematic use of terror to enforce that control. Totalitarian regimes were thought to be (under Hitler and Stalin they certainly were) energetic, enthusiastic...
None were more aware of this peril than the great totalitarians themselves. Hence Mao's desperate attempt to rekindle the flame with the Cultural Revolution. Only permanent revolution can meet the totalitarian ideal, and permanent revolution is impossible. Even tyranny needs its sleep...
What remains, then, is what Political Philosopher Michael Walzer calls "failed totalitarianism": dead, bureaucratic rule marked by exhaustion and resignation, a hollow ideology, conformity without belief. A shell of the totalitarian idea. Does this mean, then, that the famous distinction between this system and traditional authoritarianism (e.g., nonideological dictatorship like that of Somoza or Marcos) disappears? No, because one crucial difference remains: only one system continues to aspire to totality, to colonizing every nook and cranny of social life...
...what they were and still are: an essential and sometimes perilous part of a Moscow correspondent's job. Moscow's Lyolyas -- what few are left after years of KGB crackdowns -- carry news of dissidents, refuseniks, political prisoners, religious activists, divided families and the other sad human detritus of a totalitarian state. The news is usually depressing, time consuming to gather, and often of too little import to warrant reporting. But still it must be covered...