Save the Republic From Totalitarianism
Society doesn't become totalitarian overnight; it is always a process.
Writer’s note: Here is the text of the speech I gave at the U.S. Constitution Week Celebration at Grand Lake, Colorado. It’s a long read, but I believe it is worth your time.
Speaking at the U.S. Constitution week always gets me a bit emotional. More than two decades ago, I came to the U.S. from Communist China with less than $100 in my pocket. I always mentioned grocery stores when people asked what impressed me most in America. Many immigrants from socialist countries share my sentiment.
Those of us who lived in socialism were only too familiar with empty shelves, food rations, food shortages, and even famines. We have been amazed by the abundance of supply and lack of lines in grocery stores in the United States. Some stores even open 24 hours so customers can get what they want whenever they want. To me, the material wealth Americans enjoy is a manifestation of their freedom because prosperity and liberty usually go hand-in-hand.
Of course, what I appreciated the most was liberty and the dignity of living as a human being in a free society, thanks to the protection of our Constitution. As Calvin Coolidge said, "To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race."
Therefore it pains me to say this: in the last decade, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States has become more and more like the totalitarian regime I left behind. When I made this point, some people pushed back by pointing out that there are no gulags here, and we haven't seen the kind of atrocity resulting from mass starvation or Stalin-like political purge of opponents.
Here is my pushback: society doesn't become totalitarian overnight; it is always a process. A process often receives popular support at the beginning; a process that is too late to stop when the majority finally realizes what has been happening.
Has anyone read Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism?" If you haven't, I highly recommend the book, although it is not an easy read. Dutch scholar and philosopher Christiann Geusau wrote an outstanding essay about "Totalitarianism and the Five Stages of Dehumanization" based on insights from Arendt's book. My family's experiences and China's history match almost perfectly with the framework he laid out in his essay.
Today, I want to discuss how a nation falls for totalitarianism based on the framework and insights from both Arendt's book and Geusau's analysis. In the end, I will offer some suggestions to save our republic from becoming a totalitarian state.
Geusau defines totalitarianism as "a social, economic, and political system that tolerates no individual freedom or independent thought and ultimately seeks to subordinate and direct all aspects of an individual's life." Examples of totalitarian regimes included Stalin's Soviet Union and Mao's Communist China.
Both Arendt and Geusau concluded that totalitarianism has three pillars: a lonely masses, an elite class who insists on total transformation and control, and the deployment of relentless propaganda.
Three Pillars of Totalitarianism
First, the lonely masses. A totalitarian movement always seeks to destroy nonpolitical communal bonds among people, such as families and churches, because it is much easier to manipulate and control a society full of “atomized, isolated individuals.” In Communist China, Mao sought to destroy families and other communal bonds by forcing family members, relatives, friends, and neighbors to turn against one another. The only way to survive was to trust no one but remain unconditionally loyal to the ruling party.
We’ve seen similar things happen during the pandemic. The covid-19 lockdowns have forced many Americans to stay home, deprived of fundamental human interactions, and resulted in many lonely and isolated souls. Some local governments even “encouraged” and sometimes even incentivized citizens to report their neighbors who flout the lockdown rules. These covid regulations violated our constitutional rights and blurred the ideological dividing line between the Constitution Republic and a Marxist regime.
The second pillar of totalitarianism is the elite class, who control government agencies, political offices, and major institutions and fancy only themselves can solve society's problems. To do what they perceived as good, they sincerely believe they must completely control and impose their ideology and will on the rest of us, even if it means destruction and suffering. Elites are willing to lie and use all their power and the state's power to ensure they stay in power, and their orthodoxy goes unchallenged. Dissenting will never be tolerated.
For example, China's Cultural Revolution originated in top colleges in Beijing, the capital of China. From there, the elites led a revolution that destroyed Chinese culture and religion, trampled on people's fundamental rights, and crippled the essential functions of a society and an economy.
During the covid-19 pandemic, our elites took advantage of people's fear and desire for safety. They demanded Americans relinquish our constitutional rights, such as the freedoms to assembly, speech, and worship in the name of public health, or to flatten the curve and save grandmas. The government decided when and where we could go, what we could or couldn't do, and what were essentials vs. nonessentials. Some Western governments, such as Australia, even deployed police or soldiers to enforce lockdown rules. The ideological dividing line between a constitutional republic and a totalitarian regime became almost indistinguishable during the lockdowns.
Of course, we soon learned elites didn't even believe their own lies. So many of them traveled, partied, and went to restaurants while ordering the rest of us to "shelter at home" and keep schools and businesses shut down. The scary thing is that they sincerely believed that they made us suffer for our benefit, so they did nothing wrong. Because of such a belief, they will never stop until they achieve total transformation or destruction.
The third pillar of totalitarianism is the employment of relentless propaganda. In China, because of the state's control, the media is just a megaphone of state-sanctioned news, opinions, and lies purported to be news and views. For example, Chinese media claimed that the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre was a CIA-manufactured lie, even though many images and eyewitness accounts proved otherwise.
Similarly, here in the U.S., corporate media became the left's echo chamber, and big tech became the left's speech censors. During the COVID pandemic, government officials, big tech, and corporate media shut down debates. They violated our constitutional right to free speech in the name of "public health" and "follow the science." If you raised any question about masks, you were a grandma killer; if you advocated for reopening schools, you were a grandma killer; if you raised any question about vaccines, you were a grandma killer and a science denier; if you wanted to investigate the lab leak theory, you were a science denier and a racist. The list went on.
But Andrew Cuomo, former New York Governor, whose policy of keeping sick patients in nursing homes actually killed grandmas and grandpas, was celebrated as a hero and went on to win an Emmy and a multi-million book deal.
But Andrew Cuomo, former New York Governor, whose policy of sending covid-19 patients in nursing homes actually killed grandmas and grandpas, was celebrated as a hero and went on to win an Emmy and a multi-million book deal.
So, a lonely mass, an elite class bent on control and destruction, and powerful propaganda are the three pillars of totalitarianism.
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