The Khmer Rouge and the Taliban--is the totalitarian impulse innate?
Posted on: October 12, 2008 - 12:10am
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The Khmer Rouge and the Taliban--is the totalitarian impulse innate?
Here's an interesting article on how similar both of these brutal regimes were:
http://www.cpamedia.com/politics/extreme_regimes_taliban/
Given that both regimes were ideological opposites (one based on religious fanaticism and the other extreme Marxism), what then drives the totalitarian impulse? Is there an innate collectivist tribalistic drive in us which left unrestrained could lead to such brutual societies? Is it democracy and rule of law that tempers this innate impulse?
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hannah arendt, the great jewish philosopher who wrote the chilling history of the bureaucratic machine behind the holocaust in eichmann in jerusalem, has a book called totalitarianism. she speaks mostly to nazi germany and stalinist russia but i'm sure she would have insights into the totalitarian mindset in general.
i've read eichmann in jerusalem, and i would recommend it to anyone, but i haven't read totalitarianism yet. just thought i'd make you aware of the book.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
Using the term "taliban" in the past tense is a bit premature.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.