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Quote of the Day: Are We Living in a “Trust”?
Felix Dzerzhinsky is remembered as the architect of the Soviet police state and its intelligence services. Former KGB officer Vladimir Putin is among his modern admirers. While totalitarians (and wanna-be totalitarians) invariably rule by fear and violence, Dzerzhinsky had the vision to go farther, to co-opt those opponents he could not find or destroy by direct means. He created an entirely false opposition underground (the “Trust”). Exiles and domestic opponents of the new Soviet regime thought they were working together in secret when in fact every word, every plan was known (and sometimes planted or directed) by Dzerzhinsky himself. The regime controlled its opposition.
In my more intensely paranoid moments (as opposed to my normal, everyday paranoia), I think that something like The Trust is already in place in the USA. The permanent (actual) ruling party allows the appearance of opposition solely to let the masses think they have a say, to out potentially dangerous opponents, and to direct opposition energies into harmless activity that does not really interfere with the rulers.
The GOP presidential wins in the last 40 years have occasionally been bothersome but never a mortal threat to the rulers’ goals. The growth of government, the vision of technocratic rule, and the ideal of an unaccountable elite move forward regardless of electoral outcomes.
One recent glimpse at ‘that man behind the curtain’ is that “experts” who endorse broad government action on climate or COVID suffer no consequences for being spectacularly and harmfully wrong nor for viciously squelching the real scientists. No “journalists” who reached embarrassing depths of sycophancy with the obviously bogus Steele dossier, the very real Hunter Biden laptop, and the absurdly mendacious Anthony Fauci have been fired for professional incompetence. Some got Pulitzers.
The rulers endorse infanticide rather than some 14- or 15-week limit on abortion, not out of some airy notion of women’s rights (which easily disappeared when transgender became au courant), but solely to make the point that traditional values and morality cannot be allowed to intrude on policymaking. The rulers’ hostility to the first two amendments in the Bill of Rights is not just to silence and disarm opponents but to establish the idea that there are no inherent rights, only permissions, and privileges issued by the state.
The ruling party actively cheered the 2016 nomination of Donald Trump on the theory he would be the most beatable. That he actually won was a significant but temporary setback for the rulers. His marvelous judicial appointments will slow but not stop them.
Like some primitive life form responding to a painful stimulus, the permanent party not only successfully reorganized its front group as the anti-Trump party, but its media has conditioned American suburbanites to viscerally reject the MAGA caricature (depressingly often with help from Donald Trump himself). All other issues about policy or candidate quality have been pushed aside. There is only anti-MAGA. Going even further, they now actively support and fund the nomination of unelectable angry (MAGA) outsiders as Republican candidates to divide and weaken potential effective opposition.
In the new political order, voters will be able (a) to endorse the rulers by voting Democratic, (b) vote for more conventional Republican candidates who will pretend or fail to oppose the rulers, or (c) vent with pre-selected MAGA candidates who will increasingly have no real chance (especially given the dubious new voting systems in place). Our rulers thus magnanimously let us feel good about our wide menu of futile choices. Some Democrats will even be allowed to criticize members of the ultra-wealthy Davoisie in a bit of old-time social justice theater.
Our political debates and labels are deliberately distorted such that “the right” (or what passes for it) is somehow close to fascism, whereas “the left” is seen to be motivated by the nobler residue of good intentions behind socialism. In fact, fascism is just another path for totalitarians when economic class warfare is politically ineffective. Fascism is about offering a false vision to make people surrender their freedom when other false visions have failed. It is Plan B for socialists (ask Mussolini).
The inexorable blob of media, academia, bureaucracy, and low-IQ groupthink seems like some destructive volcanic sludge rolling downhill to wipe out the real and the free, a threat organized and unleashed by some crazed evil committee of Bond villains. Or maybe I am just paranoid and wrong about all this.
Published in General
January 6, 2021.
I like this big conspiracy theory much better than trying to explain a bunch of smaller ones. And it is easier to explain how it works having the example you used. Donald Trump now knows what he busted into.
It looks as if a true opposition effort that cannot be brought under control by the usual political moves sometimes causes the demise of the troublesome parties.
Brilliantly put. And true.
Be Ungovernable.
Dzerzhinki’s empire crumbled. The American Evil Empire will as well. Sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.
“When the communications go down, find something Communist and destroy it.”
Note the fake conservatives who told us that Twitter was a private company and could silence whoever they wished, but suddenly became “concerned” when Elon Musk bought Twitter.
Do you think the efforts in this country are following the model demonstrated by Dzerzhinsky? Or were they just “lucky” in coming up with their design? There’s so much admiration for Soviet models that I wouldn’t doubt that his ideas were brought into the mix. How do we battle such deviousness?
Pay attention to the Founders. I’m not going to say big is bad, but big is mostly bad.
Anyone who doubts this should watch Mr. Jones. It’s also the story of the Gaslight movie.
There was an extremely high rate of suicide and alcoholism (sort of the same thing) in the USSR.
This was why.
Jordan Peterson impressed me when I first heard him speak many years ago because of his cry for the truth. The truth is the most important thing in this life.
Every government rules by fear and violence. Aren’t there criminals and wrongdoers who need to be deterred and punished by the law? That is the nature of law enforcement.
Why do you think that is bad?
Not bad under limited government controlled by the people through legitimate elections conducted properly under the law.
I’d circumscribe that a bit differently as I see our government “by the people” is trying to go in directions that are unethical.
Not all laws are good and proper laws. That’s not to be confused with imperfect laws.
Once you decide that freedom is the enemy and that universe should be redone in your image and likeness (or that of someone like you), this kind of development will emerge almost spontaneously. The infection is opportunistic.
People with normal family and community experience and connections will more likely see government as intrusive. People who are atomized and disconnected might see government as salvational. The blob knows that all those private connections, beliefs, and institutions are its real enemy. You are alone. You don’t even know if you are a boy or a girl. You are either guilty or a victim. Marriage is a trap and a burden. Everything you do is bad for the planet. Everything with historical roots of any kind involved slavery or sexism or homophobia. Join the elite, the saved lest you be cast down like the MAGA people.
Eric Fromm’s analysis of why people feel the need to “escape” from freedom is still spot on. By leading lives in imitation of what people think or expect, by submitting to authoritarian control or, maybe worst all, by defining one’s self in terms of hatred of enemies accrue from unhealthy psychological states. There is a lot of unhealthiness out there so some totalitarian infections are more likely.
We created our current condition facilitating unethical behavior by failing to pay attention to the Founders when we amended the Constitution with the 16th and 17th Amendments and the creation of the Federal Reserve. That’s not all that has gone wrong but these actions put money management at the center of everything and control of that in the hands of the federal government.
I think for me, Ricochet and people like you are very helpful in reminding me of those dangers and all the unhealthiness. I don’t think I’ve ever been over-dependent on the government, but it’s good to have the constant reminders of what they have created and that they are perpetuating an evil, and I have to pay close attention; there are so many potential pits to fall into. Thanks, OB
It’s not the first time I’ve heard this argument. As a young pup in the early 80’s I was a Lefty activist in DC. One of the original groups that spawned the black-blocs and then Antifa was the RCP – the Revolutionary Communist Party. They were way crazy and super violent. They’d show up at a peaceful , well organized protest or march and in 20 minutes would be attacking the police and setting fires. Guaranteed. And the next day in the Post owould be an article about Left Wing Violence. It happened so frequently we swore that they must be getting bankrolled by the Right, because all they managed to accomplish was to give the Left a black eye.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
My theory now is that you can discern the genuine threats to the Uniparty. They are the things that bring rare moments of ‘bipartisanship’ in they are nearly universally opposed by the political and chattering classes. Things like…
That’s not bad.
When people who aren’t criminals are afraid, that’s bad.
Everybody is a potential criminal, as a matter of practical politics. Theologically, everybody is a sinner.
We used to have criminal laws against all sorts of misconduct that has subsequently become legalized — gambling, marijuana, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, pornography, vagrancy, and the like. Non-support, too, which promoted family. Back when we did so, we had much less of these things.
My main point is the unsophistication of these types of criticisms of ruling “by fear and violence.” Fear and violence are legitimate means of rule. Even the Apostle Paul said so.
This can be a bad thing, if the laws are bad. The problem is not the fear and violence. The problem is wicked laws.
Recognizing this, however, undermines both Leftism and libertarianism. It requires one to make a decision between substantive right and wrong, rather than punting by placing tolerance as the supreme value.
Ok. So we add some sophistication and get on with our lives.
Where is the signup for quote of the day essay? I can’t seem to find it.
It changes every month:
https://ricochet.com/1343336/december-quote-of-the-day-signup-sheet/
Yes, we are. Nearly two years later, a local couple have been charged with being in the Capitol illegally in January of 2021. What they are charged with is a misdemeanor. How many misdemeanors you know of have penalties of fines up to $100,000 and a year in jail? Just plain Evil.
Thanks Susan. Is there a repository for these every month? I went searching but couldn'[t find it.
No. Clifford Brown kept a list for Group Writing (where is that man??) but I don’t think that Lilly does. They all end up on the sign up list.
If Ukraine beats Russia to the extent that his fanboys never try anything like it again, Dzherzinski’s empire will finally have crumbled.
Dunno about that. A million campus commissars, educrats and HR functionaries await orders from the party to arise.
You seem to be saying they won’t learn anything from the defeat of Putin. Probably so. They don’t seem to be quick learners.