Totalitarian Democracy and Political Messianism
![USA](http://www.erepublik.net/images/flags_png/S/USA.png)
PlasticAlley
![](https://i.postimg.cc/qqsrf3Zm/Screenshot-2024-08-10-202152.png)
Around 2.500 years ago Athenians invented what people call Democracy.
Eligibility of citizens for public positions was decided with
a combination of public perception of the candidates and a random
final selection by the roll of dice using the Kleroterion.
![](https://i.postimg.cc/T3VQY2Wq/1-16.jpg)
Many philosophers (especially PLATO) were strongly against Democracy
mainly because of the inadequacy of the citizens (As reliable and rightful
judges) who were taking part in the decision making processes of the State.
Greed for money and power, the influence of financial moguls and
the power of populists, were among the main issues of their inadequacy.
Fast forward to today, where you vote for someone whose profile
and adequacy for that role is solely portrayed and promoted by the media,
with the United States presidential elections being probably the most
representative and best known democratic elections of this kind around
the world.
![](https://i.postimg.cc/L643Mqdz/1669932348727-now-mtp-full-korecki-221201-1920x1080-d76nni.jpg)
If you ask any politically engaged American citizen to describe the elections,
he/she will probably say that we elect one of those parties' presidents,
on the perception that this and only this person is the right one for that position
and who's views, promises and actions will give the best possible result for the country.
However, almost every time (especially in the recent years) the elected POTUS
with his ministers and entourage, act together roughly as a dictatorship
by imposing whatever THEY want on the people and the country,
regardless of what they have promised to do before the elections..
![](https://i.postimg.cc/nLqnVP4Q/those-who-deny-freedom-to-others-deserve-it-not-for-themselves-abraham-lincoln-wisdom-quotes.jpg)
During this time, any citizens that go against what the government
is planning to do, are called rebels, anarchists, terrorists, racists,
right wing or left wing extremists, etc. unfortunately usually with
the approval of their voters..
There is a term for the current political system.
It's called Totalitarian Democracy.
![](https://i.postimg.cc/Z54pH8Cp/71-UPx-VE10-XL-AC-UF1000-1000-QL80.jpg)
Israeli historian Jacob Leib popularized this term
in his 1952 book "The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy".
In that book Talmon argued that totalitarian democracy arose in three
stages, all of which were incubated during the French revolution:
1.The collapse of feudal and ecclesiastical authority, out of which
spurred the intellectual developments in eighteenth century France.
2.The development (during the Reign of Terror) of single-party dictatorship
and the use of terror as a political instrument, based on a doctrine of
total sovereignty of the people.
(Jacobin improvisation)
3.The extension of totalitarian logic to property, leading to Communism.
(Babouvist crystalisation)
Talmon studied the genealogy of totalitarianism, arguing that political Messianism stemmed
from the French Revolution and stressed the similarities between Jacobinism and Stalinism.
He coined the terms "Totalitarian Democracy" and "Messianic Democracy/Political Messianism"
How does all this relate to US politics and elections ?
![](https://i.postimg.cc/gcD74JTX/51f-ZMa-AJG-L-AC-UF1000-1000-QL80.jpg)
F. William Engdahl (In his 2009 book "Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy and the New World Order"), portrays America as driving to achieve global hegemony through military and economic means.
According to him, U.S. state objectives have led to internal conditions that resemble totalitarianism:
"[It is] a power establishment that over the course of the Cold War has spun out of control and now threatens not only the fundamental institutions of democracy but even of life on the planet through the growing risk of nuclear war by miscalculation".
What is the relation between party donors, corporate America and the US government ?
![](https://i.postimg.cc/prLpwCMn/81zy-Rs-Vx2-KL-AC-UF1000-1000-QL80.jpg)
Sheldon Wolin cites (In a 2003 article entitled "Inverted Totalitarianism") phenomena such as the lack of involvement of citizens in a narrow political framework (due to the influence of money), the privatization
of social security, massive increases in military spending and spending on surveillance, as examples
of the push away from public and towards private-controlled government.
He argues that corporate influence, is explicit through the media and implicit through the privatization
of the university. Furthermore, he contends that many political think-tanks have abetted this process by spreading conservative ideology.
Wolin states: "[With] the elements all in place...what is at stake, then, is nothing less than the attempted transformation of a tolerably free society into a variant of the extreme regimes of the past century."
Even if all this is true, why should the citizens be worried and how are their lives affected by this ?
![](https://i.postimg.cc/BZ233Hnj/51wv-Vb5-EIc-L-SY466.jpg)
Slavoj Žižek, in his 2002 book of essays "Welcome to the Desert of the Real", comes to similar conclusions.
Here he argues, that the war on terror served as a justification for the suspension of civil liberties in the US, while the promise of democracy and freedom was spread abroad, as the justification for invading Iraq and Afghanistan.
Since Western democracies are always justifying states of exception, people have been asked to surrender
their personal freedoms to the government in exchange for security.
![](https://i.postimg.cc/vTD3QCJr/ssrco-slim-fit-t-shirt-flatlay-101010-01c5ca27c6-front-wide-portrait-750x1000-bg-f8f8f8.jpg)
In US you have the border crisis, in EU you have social unrest mostly caused by the illegal immigration issue. Your social media is monitored, your public voice can be censored and you can face criminal charges.
Cameras are being installed almost everywhere..
![](https://i.postimg.cc/DZnD12Dn/The-Chinese-Corporate-Social-Credit-System-1280x550.jpg)
Big brother is watching us more and more and in countries like China, a social credit scoring system determines things that you can and cannot do.
Sooner than later, your assets and your ID will only be available in a digital form and with the push of a button you and your assets will no longer exist...
It seems that we have come full circle back to totalitarian regimes, where the political "Messiah"
(Who is ALWAYS right), will come to save the country from all foreign and domestic dangers..
All that you need to do is vote and give up a few measly personal freedoms,
in exchange for security and justice...
Especially now with the digitization of everything, our "Messiah" and his government can "kill" the bad guys within our country, without even shedding their blood..
They will just delete them..
![](https://i.postimg.cc/W43GmFfv/Screenshot-2024-07-25-140003.png)
PS. There are many countries around the world that are being governed in the same way
but the US elections are the most well known, most representative and most important
kind of elections that falls under Totalitarian/Messianic Democracy.
I don't even bother mentioning regimes like Russia, China, N.Korea etc. for obvious reasons..
-NEWPAPER DISCLAIMER-
The articles are meant to be food for thought and causes for reflection, that will hopefully
engage the reader's personal critical thinking and ultimately change, enhance and/or help
create a perspective on the matters described and on the opinions stated in those articles.
Comments
“If you want total security, go to prison.
There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on.
The only thing lacking... is freedom. ”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
what a prune, no mention of sex (but then again there isn’t freedom of choice in partners)
LOL
o7
Imagine a world of mixed prisons.
I guess this would create a parallel world. Someone would create a movie about this.
„The prisoners“ a story of a family which live in the prison. Would fit in some of those dystopia genre.
During the movie you like everything BUT than at the end it comes out that mommy and daddy has been killing people why there were stoned. With cut outs of their crime. And this lovely father the whole movie, you see this other side: creepy stoned laugh while he’s killing someone.
Yeah sht man.
Go and sell this to Netflix.
Too bad Jack Nicholson is old..
o7
o7
Interesante....
o7
More correct way of PS strarting is: All countries round the world that are being governed...
o7
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Unfortunately reality is darker than you describe. Big events and big opinion making don't happen by random chance. There are always powerful interests behind them backed by the governments, which doing so are acting against the will of the majority of their populations.
There are examples of this since the Renaissance. More recently, a book (The Coming War) first published in 1911 predicting and stating the reasons for WWI, started three years later, still is probably the best published work delving into the root causes of big events. Here is the link:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t8pc3h61h&seq=13
(- A prophecy fulfilled : the present war [WWI] predicted in 1911 / secret diplomacy exposed in La guerre qui vient (The coming war) by Francis Delaisi ; published in Paris in May, 1911, three years before the war
- "The English Industry vs. the German Industry:
- But now a conflict is preparing itself, compared to which the horrible slaughter of the Russo-Japonese war will be child's play.")
o7
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o7
o7
It reads like a very nice article, but it leaves two questions unresolve😛 why does this happen, and what to do.
Also a third one maybe: does the economy have a role in this?
As I right in my newspaper description:
"About my newspaper:
RL matters and e-world events, viewed under my personal perspective.
Always stated with sincerity, even if my opinion or my perception at the time is wrong.."
My articles are not written as statements of absolute truth or because I am the "Messiah",
therefore I have perfect solutions and answers for everything.
The articles are meant to be food for thought and causes for reflection, that will hopefully
engage the readers' personal individual critical thinking, analyzing and ultimately change,
enhance and/or help create a perspective on the matters in those articles..
(Having said that, your questions are very tempting to answer but this can't be done
in the comments or inside an article that already is too long and boring for people to read..)
Yes I don't have answers either, but it just felt those questions were the natural continuation of your train of thought. A future article maybe?
If you ask me, the place to look for those answers is the economy: what you described are the symptoms of a concentration of political power, which is the natural consequence of the concentration of economic power.
However, clearly there can be many different opinions about this.
You just mentioned a huge and very important part of politics..
I scraped that part in a paragraph of this article
https://www.erepublik.com/en/article/styrofoam-and-plastic-2780774/1/20
"If human civilization is based οn gains, profit and advancements
for which sacrifices "have" to be made, how are we to distinguish
which ones are acceptable and which are not ??"
Oh my God, the importance of economics in politics is something that
I have been debating with my friends about for the past 15 years..
Ok, I can try writing something about this but don't expect much
I am not a professor or a writer
o7
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2 sides of the same coin. The moment someone runs for office he/she loses all credibility. Because the system itself is corrupt, you can not expect people that participate in it to have not been corrupted.
Great article btw. o7
o7
"With the push of a button you and your assets will no longer exist".
Poor PlasticAlley, he and this article will disappear in 10, 9, 8...
We might joke about this but there were over 3,000 persons arrested in Britain
for social media posts in 2018 alone..
Publicly stating your opinion on things, is becoming very dangerous in the years to come
You should make a difference between a federal state like USA and a united nation like France, Spain, Portugal, Itlay Vietnam, Cambodge, Thailand, Japan, Argentina, Brazil etc... In USA ppl are not voting directly but they are voting to elect big electors then big electors votes for President. By this way the people are very far from the power so this system can be considered further from democracy than systems I've aforementioned.
Anyway interesting article 😉
I understand what you are trying to say but as I mentioned in the beginning of the article,
and at the postscipt (PS) at the end of it, I am referring to the United States presidential elections
because they are probably the most representative and best known democratic elections
of this kind around the world.
Thank you for your input
o7
an extremely interesting article, showing light in the darkest corners of the world...
its very true sadly.
o7
democracy is not sustainable due to the democracy paradox: The smart want it because they think everyone is smart and the stupid aren't able to understand that they are stupid, so both push it without understanding the whole picture
only path forward is enlightened absolutism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato%27s_political_philosophy
Have you read Plato's theory on this ?
Plato's ideal rulers are philosopher-kings
(Which is very close to what you say)
o7
tbh i come to a whole lot of conclusions apparently some pretty bright people came up a long time before me, so i didnt before, but i do share a lot of his views xD
O7
ο7