DU POLL: Inverted totalitarianism? Are we there? [View all]

[RKP5637]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism

Inverted totalitarianism is a term coined by political philosopher Sheldon Wolin in 2003 to describe the emerging form of government of the United States. Wolin believes that the United States is increasingly turning into an illiberal democracy, and uses the term "inverted totalitarianism" to illustrate similarities and differences between the United States governmental system and totalitarian regimes such as Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union.[1][2][3][4] In Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco, inverted totalitarianism is described as a system where corporations have corrupted and subverted democracy and where economics trumps politics.[5] In inverted totalitarianism, every natural resource and every living being is commodified and exploited to collapse as the citizenry is lulled and manipulated into surrendering their liberties and their participation in government through excess consumerism and sensationalism.[6][7]

According to Wolin, the United States has two main totalizing dynamics:

The first, directed outward, finds its expression in the Global War on Terror and in the Bush Doctrine that the United States has the right to launch preemptive wars. This amounts to the United States seeing as illegitimate the attempt by any state to resist its domination.[18][4][17]


The second dynamic, directed inward, involves the subjection of the mass of the populace to economic "rationalization", with continual "downsizing" and "outsourcing" of jobs abroad and dismantling of what remains of the welfare state created by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society. Thus neoliberalism is an integral component of inverted totalitarianism. The state of insecurity in which this places the public serves the useful function of making people feel helpless, thus making it less likely they will become politically active, and thus helping maintain the first dynamic.[19][20][4][17]

6 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Yes, we are living in inverted totalitarianism.
	6 (100%)
	No, we are not living in inverted totalitarianism.
	0 (0%)
	Maybe, something like it, not sure.
	0 (0%)
	We are headed there.
	0 (0%)
	This is a ridiculous philosphical discussion.
	0 (0%)
	Never ever!
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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