Tag Archives: totalitarianism

Muslims in England Burn the U.S. Constitution

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

The below video represents Herderian politics in action: underground men, as if stepping out of the shadows of a Dostoevsky or Conrad novel, possessed of a collectivist ideology that has made them mad, eat bitterness together. It is a protest in Britain initiated by … Continue reading →

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Nietzsche’s checkmate: does atheism lead to totalitarianism?

Posted on May 30, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

A.C. Grayling, an atheist author that I tend to otherwise love, calls the idea that atheism gave birth to communism and fascism a theist “canard.” But, as an agnostic who has been doing a good deal of Nietzsche reading lately, I’m not … Continue reading →

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Apocalypse Now?: North Korea, a nuclear power, threatens full-scale war with South Korea

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

And this chilling sentence appeared in the New York Times story on the crisis: The motivations, health and even state of mind of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, remained cloaked in mystery. Got it? We don’t know whether, exactly, Kim … Continue reading →

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Are Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek Authoritarian Leftists?

Posted on May 18, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

At Dissent, Alan Johnson worries that two revered intellectual theorists, Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek, are increasingly sounding—it’s hard to be polite about this—old school authoritarian: I propose to write a series of posts on what I will call the “new authoritarian … Continue reading →

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Dear Leader Megalomania

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

I like these two:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        . And this one:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   . More from MightyGodKing (MGK) here. And still more Dear Leader totalitarianism and megalomania (but of the Christian fundamentalist variety) here.

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A great quote on fundamentalism from Lionel Tiger and Michael McGuire’s new book, “God’s Brain” (2010)

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

On page 8: People are killed for what is in their heads and for the amulets worn around their necks. A mighty university press, Yale, refuses to publish images of a religious figure—the book is precisely about them [images of … Continue reading →

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21st Century Russia: Early 1930s Germany Redux?

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

A sobering documentary on 21st century Russia. Worth watching in full. We live in dangerous times. Here’s part 1 of 6:

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Beck Zedong!

Posted on November 24, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Glenn Beck’s got a one hundred year plan (oh, shit): “We need to start thinking like the Chinese.” In other words, Glenn Beck thinks that focused, insurgent, belligerent, fanatically committed mass movement Maoism—with its disciplined cell groups, ideological purity, and relentless propaganda—is the right … Continue reading →

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Nanny State Watch: Fire-Safe Cigarettes Are Intrusive Upon Human Liberty

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

I don’t smoke, and I didn’t know there was such a thing as fire-safe cigarettes, but apparently there are states legislating their sale, and Andrew Sullivan today got a life-affirming rant from one of his readers about them. Money quote: We … Continue reading →

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Jeff Bezos’s Orwellian Treatment of George Orwell’s 1984

Posted on July 22, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

The potentially Orwellian implications of the Kindle here.

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Quote of the Day: Robert Lifton on the “thought terminating cliche”

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Thought terminating cliches? You know, like the ones that Americans hear weekly from Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Here’s the psychologist Robert Lifton, from his book, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism : “The language of the totalist environment is characterized by … Continue reading →

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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Studio Portrait of Kurt Klein, Age Two

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Studio portrait, from 1922, of two-year-old Kurt Klein. In 1937, Kurt Klein’s parents sent him to live with relatives in Buffalo, New York. His parents, unable to immigrate, died at Auschwitz in 1942. According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum archives: Kurt was … Continue reading →

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Soviet Hammer & Sickle Shirts Being Sold at Amazon

Posted on March 21, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Below is a disturbing shirt being sold at Amazon. I don’t oppose the shirt being sold, only disturbed that people are so ignorant of the history of the 20th century that they would think it “cool” to wear it. Or worse: they … Continue reading →

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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Jews Forced by Nazis to Scrub a Street in Vienna

Posted on March 11, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Nazis in Vienna force Jews to scrub a street as non-Jewish spectators look on: Source: U.S. Holocaust Museum. Photograph is in the public domain.

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BIG JESUS is Watching You? Is Christianity a Form of Authoritarianism/Totalitarianism?

Posted on March 7, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Christopher Hitchens thinks that Christianity, in the way it surrounds and encloses the psyche of the believer, and threatens the unbeliever with torture, is a form of totalitarianism: It is an odd thing, isn’t it, to tell somebody, IF YOU … Continue reading →

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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Image from Auschwitz, 1944

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Santi Tafarella
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Quote of the Day

Posted on January 10, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote this arresting passage in his short story, “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”: [P]eople appeared who began devising ways of bringing men together again, so that each individual, without ceasing to prize himself above all others, might not … Continue reading →

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Liberal Secularism v. Illiberal Secularism: Why Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett are Wrong to Hint That Perhaps the State Should Set Restrictions on Religious Child-Rearing

Posted on January 10, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Late in 2007 Damon Linker, in the New Republic, had a great essay on the contemporary atheist movement, and it can still be read online here.  The title of the essay is “Atheism’s Wrong Turn.” For me, there are two “money quotes” in the essay. Here’s the … Continue reading →

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EVERY Knee Shall Bow and Every Tongue Confess—Christmas?: Santa Abolishes “Happy Holidays” Once and For ALL

Posted on December 11, 2008 by Santi Tafarella

Bill O’Reilly wins the War on Christmas:

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Thinking About the First Monotheist: Not Moses, but Akhenaten

Posted on August 22, 2008 by Santi Tafarella

In the 14th century BCE, the Egyptian pharoah Akhenaten, father of “King Tut” (Tutankamen), and husband of Nefertiti, seems to have had some profound revelation that there was only one God, and that God’s name was Aten—who manifested himself in the … Continue reading →

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