On "Democratic Totalitarianism"

...For instance, although even the neo-totalitarians must concede that school busing has not achieved what it was supposed to and that it has aroused massive opposition among the people whose lives it touches most directly, and although many of them seem to have accepted the thesis of such scholars as Edward Banfield that the real problem in integration is not race but social class, they have not given up...

...Distasteful as I find most of his pronouncements, there is a sense in which I must agree with William Kunstler's recent assertions that we live in a dictatorship, run, as he sees it, by Richard Nixon...

...The net result is the aggrandizement of state power and the continued estrangement of the individual from all other loyalties...

...Almost everyone would agree with the law's objective in the abstract: to ensure that irrelevant obstacles shall not hinder individuals from making the best use of their talents...

...May we not be entering a period of the tyranny of the democratic dogma, of a rage for equality...

...A public prosecutor, who trembles in court because he is not sufficiently progressive, is our, ours...

...Such propositions are considered effectively decided by the overwhelming majority of intellectuals and media people...

...It is fantastic to term Mr...

...The family is another intermediary association of long standing which has recently come under heavy fire from the neo-totalitarians...

...We would be foolish indeed to drop our guard now against external aggression...

...Under present legislation officials dedicated to the Utopian ideal of socio-economic mixing can do a great deal of damage, but they cannot reach their objective entirely without laws restricting freedom of movement and perhaps association...

...Being dedicated to these propositions as moral truths, they easily justify their violation of traditional concepts of freedom of speech (I might comment in passing that the concept of "freedom of speech" requires considerable re-thinking in an age of mass communications: can someone not prevented from speaking on a street-corner be said to enjoy the same freedom of speech as one who appears constantly on network television and reaches millions...

...In short, their morality lies behind much current legislation...

...in short, when civil rights" of the type guaranteed to members of the state are injected like cancer cells into intermediary organizations, then those organizations are gradually weakened as unique entities, and the individual looks more and more to the state as the guarantor of his expanded "rights...

...we have no concentration camps for opponents of the Republican party...

...This process assumes the existence of a general uniformity of opinion throughout the state...

...This is a full reversal of traditional juridical procedure in this country, but it is typical of totalitarian countries, where political crimes are regarded as far more serious than ordinary ones...

...The liberal intellectuals now think a number of viewpoints immoral, and immorality-must be suppressed...

...other millions employed by firms or schools partially or wholly dependent on government funding...

...Although the new definition of morality differs greatly from the older one, those who promote it resemble their predecessors in their desire to legislate it, and not trust to its enforcement and advancement through informal social sanctions...

...Because of the peculiar historical situation in which we find ourselves, the neo-totalitarians avoid discussing bans on alcohol and narcotics, but they plainly display the mentality of those who framed the prohibition amendment...

...In traditional society, the state is only one of many social entities to which the individual owes fealty under certain circumstances...

...On the way to the totalitarian state the individual is urged to oliberate" himself from the cramping confines of family, church, and locality, and thus these intermediate groupings are destroyed...

...We have some distance to go before attaining the totalitarian ideal of the state as sole employer, but we are much nearer to it than we were twenty or thirty years ago...

...The juries who acquit all criminals without distinction are ours...

...when private organizations are pressured to adhere to the same non-exclusionary policies as the state...

...Those who express fundamentally different viewpoints are gaped at in incredulity and disbelief...

...Senator Goldwater and Vice-President Agnew) are viciously attacked...

...In the present climate of opinion such draconian legislation is not entirely unthinkable so long as it is presented as promoting "social justice...

...A relatively trival example of this is a club at Columbia University which had traditionally barred women: when a vote was taken on the question a short time ago, only one vote out of more than 200 was cast in favor of retaining the prohibition...

...Each particular project or law is proposed for some "humanitarian" end of which most if not all would approve food stamps to feed the hungry, family services for family-less children, health care for the sick, social security for the aged, etc...

...And those few who penetrate all these defenses (e.g...

...After all, they argue, should someone who is clearly in error, or whose "truth" would have harmful social consequences, be permitted to spread doubt and confusion...

...The adjective has very negative connotations, and is ordinarily applied to nation-states headed by all-powerful despots, such as Hitler's Germany or the Soviet Union under Stalin...

...As a matter of fact, the general indifference of the American public to our course toward "democratic totalitarianism" is in some ways more alarming than the course itself...

...The bureaucrats are toying with the idea of requiring some minimum percentage, say 15 percent, of low-income housing in all new construction projects, a design which would eventually make the "escape to the suburbs" impossible...

...The family, the university, the church, private associations generally so long as they seek to maintain their unique character, are mocked and sneered at...

...In his excellent book of 1953, The Quest for Community, Robert Nisbet develops a view of modern western history as the gradual breakdown of organizations intermediate between the individual and the state (the church, the guild, the local community, the family), the consequent atomization of society into its individual members, who then collectively constitute "the masses," and the reintegration of individuals under the unmediated power of the state...

...Yet, with a few honorable and striking exceptions, they will not speak out to this effect for fear of economic retaliation...

...the millions on welfare, unemployment, and social security...

...It has indisputably been weakened by industrialization and other factors of modern life in any case, but deliberate government policies have hastened its disintegration...

...Thus the Equal Employment Opportunity Act is rapidly leading to the further politicization of the universities...

...If they cannot be ignored, they are ostracized, or, where possible, prevented by informal means from communicating their views to any very large groups of people...

...Under these arrangements it will be made easier for single persons to have children, without any social stigma attached, and keep them or not as they wish...

...An important instrument of totalitarian change in our society is what might be termed "legalization," or the widest possible extension of the legal rights available to an individual as a member of the state to the individual as a member of those intermediary organizations which still survive, as a means of promoting their dissolution...

...The idea of a state-run economy has always been repugnant to all Americans save a small number of socialist intellectuals...

...It is important to note here that most of the liberal intellectuals sincerely look upon these propositions as unexceptionable goods which can be denied only by irrational or evil men (the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church once exclaimed that those who opposed his plans to reform the church and merge it with other protestant denominations were not in their right minds...

...To begin with, how should we understand the word "totalitarian...

...The application of such an interpretation to American life today yields some illuminating, though quite distressing, insights...

...Perhaps if the next president were to announce that, in order to stop inflation, eliminate poverty, discrimination, and racism, and promote the general welfare, he was transforming the United States into a one-party "democratic totalitarian" state, only about five senators out of 100 would vote against him...

...This clearly will weaken the traditional family unit...

...In return, the state assumes responsibility for his well-being, at least so long as he is loyal to it...

...It cannot be denied that in our time many of the established intermediary organizations" of western society are under severe disintegrative assault...

...The potential for social chaos inherent in this approach was visible in the recent Forest Hills dispute in New York where the local citizenry found that Big Brother truly would not let them alone...

...When the process is complete, the individual owes his primary loyalty, not to his family, his church, or his community - indeed these have no meaning except insofar as they serve the state's ends but to the state...

...The representation of minorities cannot be increased without the introduction of a quota system and the hiring of even academic personnel, not on the basis of qualification, but on political grounds: is the applicant a member of some minority group...

...When I went abroad, Littre's theory that crime is insanity was the vogue...

...It is next to imperative to believe, for instance, that the Vietnam war is wholly repugnant and indefensible, that communism presents no internal or external threat to our society, that no differences in individual ability are attributable to race, and - most important - that integration of the races and of social and economic classes, indeed, general obliteration of distinctions, is the highest good...

...Perhaps we have nothing left to defend with our rockets...

...The vast majority of the university faculty, though they approve of the law's intent, are strongly opposed to the application of the law in faculty hiring...

...It is no chance matter that many of the neo-totalitarians take up the practice of law and advance their objectives through the courts, which are heavily populated by judges of like persuasion...

...Liberation" is the current catchword...

...On a slightly less profound level, the totalitarian control of the American economy has been increasing recently...

...in some regards freedom of speech and criticism of government have received unprecedented protection in this country...

...Only those few who reject the aims of the state experience the full force of its repressive powers, which are now infinitely greater than those of the formerly existing intermediary organizations...

...Nixon's weak-kneed administration a dictatorship at this point, but nevertheless we have in fact proceeded far down the path toward the totalitarian state in America, voluntarily and of our own accord, most often by majority vote of our own democratically elected representatives...

...A strikingly totalitarian element in the administrative implementation of the law is that a person accused of practicing discrimination in hiring seems to be considered guilty until or unless he proves himself innocent...

...Legislation of this sort was vetoed by the President in December, but a virtually identical bill passed the Senate once more in June by a lopsided margin of 73-12...

...As applied, however, the law probably causes more problems than it cures...

...his loyalty to church or family may override his allegiance to the state...

...When a university finds it difficult to expel a student who has violated its special compact without going through an expensive legal arbitration, when churches fear to expel clergymen who loudly proclaim their rejection of religious doctrine, when young people and even children are told they have extensive legally enforcable "rights" over against their parents and school administrations...

...Freed from intermediary bonds, few individuals will have the courage to think their own thoughts, and even fewer the bravery to act upon them...

...And so it comes about that even in that citadel of free inquiry, the university, not only are proponents of certain points of view forcibly prevented from speaking, but the very notion of academic freedom is called into question when it would protect them...

...Truly these are hard times for the traditionalists among us, those happy few who genuinely believe in the principles upon which our society was built but which, we fear, remain standing solely by virtue of an inertia that becomes less trustworthy with every passing day...

...Universities are compelled to comply with the Equal Employment Opportunity laws under threat of court action or immediate and total cut-off of Federal funds, to which nearly all our universities have become addicted...

...In communist countries the criterion is different (is the applicant a Communist party member...

...Freedom of speech in this vital area is thus restricted through the pressure of Federal law and regulation...

...Congress passes the most extreme anti-pollution and safety measures by wide margins with little consideration of the confusion they may cause or even the possibility of genuinely implementing them...

...There is nothing wrong with this frame of mind, although it seems to be Great American Series I hope the halls of the great educational institutions will stop being places of hatred and agitation against this government and this society...

...In the overall scheme of things, however, each of these programs promotes the collapse of the old intermediary structures and the conjoining of atomized individuals under the aegis of the state...

...when I returned, crime was no longer insanity, but just commonsense, indeed, almost a duty and, at any rate, a noble protest...

...The controls have so far been weakly enforced, fortunately, and they cannot and will not stop inflation in any case, but they unquestionably represent a direct intrusion into the private life of every American and violate the principles of a free economy...

...Charles A. Moser: On "Democratic Totalitarianism" You know, socialism among us spreads chiefly because of sentimentality...

...Perhaps I am wrong...

...In this instance even the traditional right to push for a law's repeal or alteration is threatened, for a faculty member who has anything to do with hiring at a university and who takes a public stand against the application of the law to his university might jeopardize its financial situation: his views might be taken as evidence that the university was not complying with the law...

...One of the most' 'democratically totalitarian" pieces of recent legislation is the Equal Employment Opportunity Act...

...Perhaps I am wrong.against him...

...During the Senate debate an amendment was proposed and adopted which illustrates graphically how, having contributed so mightily to the disintegration of the traditional family, the state is now reintegrating its constituent parts: the amendment proposed that, where possible, Child Development centers be established near old people's homes and that the elderly be encouraged to assist in raising these children...

...It is still so to most of us...

...A passage from Dostoevsky's The Possessed, published precisely a century ago and probably the most powerful literary statement ever made against the statist ideal, describes our own situation with astonishing fidelity...

...Indeed, near unanimity of opinion is a major source of the state's power over-the atomized individual: "freed" from the necessity of making his own decisions, he is told how to view the great majority of questions in his own and his country's life...

...Peter Verkhovensky in Dostoevsky 's The Possessed (1871-72) Especially since the conclusion of the Second World War, Americans have been intensely concerned about the possibility that a foreign power might impose a totalitarian regime upon us by force, and have invested immense sums of money in arms to see that this should not happen...

...When we do, those of us who believe in the idea of the free society and limited government can only be alarmed...

...In particular, universities are required to increase their hiring from various minority groups, including women - defined as a minority for these purposes in good Orwellian fashion - in desirable positions...

...Most striking of all were the broad powers assumed by the President, and later confirmed by the Senate with only four dissenting votes, in imposing wage and price controls (he said they were voluntary, but non-compliance was punishable) upon the economy in order to control inflation...

...everywhere we see vanity reaching inordinate proportions, enormous bestial appetites....Do you realize how many converts we shall make by trite and ready-made ideas...

...They have merely adopted another tack, that of altering housing patterns to achieve full mixing of races and, more especially, of socio-economic classes...

...The introduction some time ago of Social Security, followed later by various programs for the aged, especially medical ones, have made it ever easier for middle-aged and young adults to consign their parents to old people's homes, and thus free themselves of any responsibility for them...

...This statement may seem ridiculous on its face to many, but a powerful case can, unhappily, be made for the proposition that we are moving toward what may be called a democratic totalitarian" state...

...Certainly the United States is only very remotely comparable to them...

...The docility of schoolboys and fools has reached the highest pitch...

...For all the superficial variety of American culture, it is indisputable that in the media and among the educated classes who think extensively about national and international politics there is a remarkable unanimity of opinion on the great bulk of these questions...

...In a totalitarian society the individual may experience no such conflict of loyalties: his sole allegiance is to the state...

...Now we are haunted by the disquieting suspicion that the whole philosophy of our free society with limited government may be a hollow shell...

...Integration of many sorts under the aegis of the state has been the objective of laws other than the Equal Employment Opportunity Act...

...Moreover, Child Development legislation makes explicit provision for "single parents," a euphemism in many cases for women who used to be called unwed mothers...

...The "rogue" socialist Peter Verkhovensky cries at one point: 'The teacher who laughs with the children at their God and at their cradle is ours already....Schoolboys who kill a peasant for the sake of a thrill are ours...

...But nagging questions still remain...

...Although difficult to achieve, this can be effectively promoted by subsidies distributed by HUD for the construction of low-income housing in higher-income areas...

...but it is at bottom still political rather than professional...

...And yet we find ever greater controls being clapped upon the economy, often by overwhelming majority votes of the Congress, in the name of safety, ecology, protection of the consumer against the manufacturer, and even protection of the consumer against himself, as with recent auto-safety devices and the abolition of cigarette advertising on television...

...A foster grandparent program along similar lines already exists and evidently is rather successful...

...Richard Nixon usually does not rule by decree (though we should recall the suddenness with which wage and price controls were imposed on the economy...

...Concurrently the "freed," atomized individual is integrated into the framework of the state, but now with his areas of choice and responsibility far more restricted than they were before, although he does not feel this at the outset because he accepts the political objectives of the state and therefore considers himself quite free when he does what the state wishes him to do (compare the Marxist definition of freedom as the recognition of necessity...

...More and more of their concepts are being embodied in national legislation or are being pushed through administrative regulation by Federal bureaucracies which the new totalitarians now control...

...Mayor Daley losing its hold lately with the conclusion of such catastrophic agreements as the SALT treaties, for the threat is quite genuine...

...Now the attack upon family responsibility has shifted to its offspring with the introduction of Child Development legislation, founded on the notion that the child is the ward of the state, that the state should accept prime responsibility for his nurture as far back as the prenatal stages...

...But very few voices were raised in opposition to them, and businessmen were brought to Washington to express their support for them...

...Another disturbing thing is the greater and greater percentage of Americans who are directly dependent upon the government for all or some of their livelihood: government employees at the Federal, state, and local levels...

...All too often it turns out that old forms have become mere shells, without support within...

...The effect of such actions and viewpoints is to cut the individual adrift from his intermediary moorings so that when he tires of his excessive freedom he may easily be compacted into the total state...

...Yet we are engaged in what Willi Schlamm has so aptly termed an "international civil war," and we would do well to take a harder look at what is happening under our very noses on the domestic front...

...the schoolmasters are full of bile...

...Usually they are simply ignored thereafter...