Totalitarianism, as the word suggests, is the full control of the totality or of major facets of the lives of those subject to it. The ultimate control would be of life itself, enabling the controllers to reach their goals through determining who should be born and who should be denied birth. As shall be shown below, organized promotion of just such totalitarianism has long been present in our midst, and still is at a time when genetic manipulation and other technologies more and more render such control possible.
The totalitarian ideal, of course, antedates by centuries such technology, and was early applied by methods of force and terror. Certain tribes killed weaklings at birth. It has been used as a population control measure. Children have been used as sacrificial victims. Military regimes such as that of Sparta dispatched male children who lacked promise of ability in arms. All such measures were used with some argument that they served the good of the family or the tribe or of worship or of the state or nation.
Modern refinement of the method of control of human life itself has not changed the argument basically, but only the subtlety or refinement with which it is advanced. Successful totalitarians always craft their arguments to appeal to the mentality and culture of the time. Yet at its root, totalitarianism is unchanged, despite attempts to conceal its vicious and anti-human character. (more...)
No comments:
Post a Comment