The Escapists
One of the things about liberal democracy that is hard to see from the inside is how the system must be all consuming. The people trapped in such a system are forced to engage with it constantly. You are not allowed to live outside of politics. Everywhere you go there are people preaching the latest gospel, demanding you engage with it, usually demanding you not only have an opinion, but you have the right opinion. There is no escape from politics, because politics is everywhere.
The reason for this is democracy can only derive its authority from the general will, which must be expressed through public opinion. That is the basis of all democratic systems of government. Truth itself is fifty percent plus one. If people refuse to participate by not voting or not having an opinion, they must be assumed to be in the opposition to whatever is being proposed. Democracy off all kinds is a binary system where you can only be for or against the current issue.
You may not want to engage in the current issues because you simply don’t care, but your lack of caring can only be read as opposition. After all, if you supported the latest fad, you would make that clear. Your indifference gives support to those who oppose it, so your reasons are unimportant. What matters is your indifference is standing in the way of the cause. Both sides, therefore, feel it is their duty to force you to pick a side, as otherwise you are on the other side.
This binary view of the world that is forced on everyone inside a liberal democracy is a form of totalitarianism. The conventional definition of a totalitarian system is one that exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. The merely authoritarian system seeks only to control the state. Totalitarian systems seek to change the world and human nature with total control of public and private life. Man in a totalitarian system is a prisoner of enforced consent.
In contrast to the masculine nature of communist systems, liberal democracy is a softer and more subtle expression of control. The old communists would send men around to beat nonconformists. Millions were sent off to die in camps because they needed to be examples to the others. In liberal democracy, there is the same need for examples, but instead of torture and murder, the system uses psychological weapons against the intended victims. They get nagged into submission.
We see this with the Covid cult. In the Soviet Union, citizens would have been dragged off to get their shots and that would have been the end of it. There would be no need for vaccine passports, as internal passports were compulsory. In liberal democracy, the system seeks to nag and torment people into compliance. It is a passive-aggressive assault on the mind of the citizen. You are told you have choices, but if you choose incorrectly you are tormented by the system.
Note also that the point of compliance in liberal democracy is the same as in the communists forms of totalitarianism. Compliance is a moral issue. No one in charge cares about the health of the people. In fact, they secretly hope the white population dies from Covid. What matters to them is that you agree. They need your affirmation because they get their sense of authority from the general will. No matter your reasons, you not getting the vaccine is viewed as rejection of their morality.
This fear of and intolerance for opposition is the hallmark of totalitarian regimes and it is the operating ethos of modern liberal democracy. It is why the system has become entangled with digital life. It allows them to search for what the Soviets called refuseniks, people who refused to agree with the system. In liberal democracy, the refusenik is a “denier” of some sort or possibly a conspiracy theorist. The search for such people using digital tools is the highest priority.
The term “conspiracy theorist” is instructive. History is full of conspiracies, and these are taught in the schools. One of the most famous is the conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar by Roman senators. It is used as the archetypal example of the political conspiracy. Despite the fact that conspiracies are the norm in human history, a person who traffics in them is anathematized as a dangerous weirdo. More important, anyone questioning official dogma is called a conspiracy theorist.
This is all part of the central demand of liberal democracy. Like all totalitarian systems, it cannot tolerate deviation or doubt. The authority of the people in charge is dependent on the general will. That is not only what puts them in charge, but it provides the systems of power they control. The indifferent in some small way question this moral authority by withholding their consent. This is why in a liberal democracy; you can never escape politics. You are only permitted to agree.
It is also why the liberal democrat has a special loathing of those who are indifferent to their moral claims. The person who mocks or dismisses their morality is assumed to worship different gods and have a different moral code. His source of strength is outside the liberal democratic order. That person is the true danger because he carries with him an alternative truth. That alternative truth is a direct threat to the system and the people who control it, so it must be destroyed.
This is why Christianity collapsed in the West as liberal democracy was imposed on it by the America empire. Christianity places the ultimate authority, the basis of right and wrong, outside of politics. To allow such an alternative source of morality is impossible in the liberal democratic order. As a result, all forms of Christianity have been swept from the public square. This is why Muslims reject liberal democracy. They know it is a direct threat to their faith.
Perhaps the most important innovation in the realm of totalitarianism is the lure of popular participation. In the communist systems, the party was supreme. In the liberal democratic order, the system attempts to draw everyone in with the promise that they can change things by participating. This flushes the opponents out into the open, who foolishly take the bait. This is the main role of mass media. They promise to amplify your opposition, but only serve to identify you as a heretic.
The Soviet Union made the great turn into decline when it began to run out of enemies it could use to focus party efforts. Once the people figured out that they could only live in the shadows and must always avoid engaging in politics publicly, the system was starved for energy. It settled into a long period of decline and eventually collapsed when faced with the crisis of the 1980’s. Convenient opposition, the handy heretic, is the fuel that powers the totalitarian system.
In a liberal democracy, a genuine opposition will refuse to engage the system and seek to live in the shadows. It will stay off the official social media platforms and avoid all contact with regime media. It will evolve its own language and its own moral structures outside of and independent from the system. The modern dissident will not stand athwart history yelling “stop”. He will stand outside of it, going about his business, building an alternative that is free from the bloody grasp of liberal democracy.
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