Democratic Death Throes: Totalitarian Democracy

[Clara T]

Democratic death throes
By Frank Pitz

Dec 31, 2005, 00:56

The death rasp is growing increasingly louder; the body thrashes against the inevitable, skin drawn tight against a gaunt skull as the end nears. An ignoble end, an end hastened indeed by the patient's own folly.
In spite of the Bush Corporation's iniquitous slide into chaos and apparent self-destruction, the Dems are just too damn weak to rise to the occasion. In a way it is a double shame that the so-called "opposition party" allowed a corrupt, immoral administration to become so powerful. The other side of that is in doing so; the Dems hastened their demise.

<snip>

"One-Party Rule" means corporate rule. Any doubts? The majority of Americans aren't fortunate enough to receive dividend checks from Corporate America, but for those that do there is also an added feature; most of these checks contain political messages. Those messages are gentle reminders to the recipient to contact their elected reps and make sure to tell them that tax cuts are good for America. Bush & Company compensates the corporations with things like deregulation, getting rid of environmental regulationss and the largest reward: privatizing government services. Jeb Bush, governor of Florida is a master of this scheme. He has single-handedly damn near privatized the entire state. Something his brother George wants to do with the whole country.

A more apropos term for what is taking place in the United States would be "Totalitarian Democracy." This is a term created by Israeli historian J. L. Talmon (1916-1980) and from his 1952 book The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy. In his book, Talmon posits just how a system of government of lawfully elected (though we know that is not the case anymore) representatives maintain a one-party nation-state whose citizens, "while granted the right to vote, have little or no participation in the decision-making process of the government."
This change didn't start with W, though his administration has done more to point us in the direction of Messianic Democracy than any since Reagan''s. No, it started with Nixon when the neocons began to see hopes for the dismantling of the very structure of "Social Contract" governance that was instituted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

<snip>

Where does it end? More importantly, when does it end? I leave you with a quote by Herbert Marcuse (1898 -- 1979) from his book One-Dimensional Man (and is there a more one-dimensional man than Bush?): " . . . liberty can be made into a powerful instrument of domination. . . . Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves."

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_380.shtml

[FloridaPat]

1. The Democrats and the at least 50% of the American public.

It amazes me how "comfortable" most people are with the situation. I go out and look at people walking by and they're just going about their lives. No thought beyond next pay check and next dinner.

[neoblues]

2. All so carefully distracted and easily manipulated.

American life is, in some ways and for most people, just too easy. People are hardly alive, just going through the motions... while being trained to be satisfied by a myriad of clever entertainments (tv, videogames, movies, pro-sports, gambling, etc). What a fine, docile and 'satisfied' population we have; unaware that it's been lulled into a false sense of security. Most even imagine they are still free (and that their votes count, and that their leaders really are taking care of them/doing the right thing, and so on.).

Will we die in our sleep?

[acmejack]

3. Isn't it frustrating?

These oblivious fools. One morning they are going to wake up and realize exactly what has transpired, that they are subjects. When they wonder about their newly discovered state of subjugation, they will say "It happened overnight". Fools, ignorant fools.

[Selatius]

4. Germans were the same way in the 1930s

There were too many different problems and crises that needed attention. Do this. Do that. Don't do this. Don't do that. Pay this. Work this. Plan this.

People don't have time anymore. Americans are poverty-stricken when it comes to time. You've got workers now working two jobs to pay the bills and feed the kids when one job used to do it. You've got a national average of something like $8,000 of credit card debt per person. Interest on top of interest on that amount going on forever. You've got television convincing people to mortgage their futures just so they can try and imitate the lifestyles of those who are gaining more and more control over them. The fact is there is no future in that!

This is not Ukraine. This is not Georgia. This is not Venezeula, and this is not Bolivia. People here have become so thoroughly entrapped that they either cannot or will not resist. They are too comfortable or too distracted to do what all those people in those countries I mentioned did. They did it because they had nothing left to lose, and they were made desperate. Only desperate people do desperate things. Comfort and leisure kill nations, but desperation saves nations.