[ExI] totalitarian techniques

[Stuart LaForge]

Quoting Bill Wallace:


> Follow the money - learned that lesson decades ago (I was referring to the
> politics of the viewer  - not number - TV etc. can easily program different
> things for different parts of the country.  Just like goetta- would never
> have learned about that in the South - niece from Ohio brought me some -
> tasty!)
>
> "The love of money is the root of all evil."  Not really 'all', but much.
> bill w

Quoting the bible now are we? Do you have a rational argument for the  
existence of good and evil? After all you speak of them like they are  
well-defined scientific concepts but are they? What precisely is evil,  
professor Wallace, and what is good? I have my own grim Darwinian  
answer, but I would like to hear yours.

Here is a bible quote that contradicts yours from 1 John 4:8 KJV:
"8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."

So God is love in all instances except when the love is for money?  
Money is responsible for most if not all of civilization. The only  
reason that societies with different Gods tolerate one another is  
because of money. Money is the grease in the wheels of progress and it  
is the manna of evolution at least for humans.

>
> Spike, you keep making these grand statements which are not even arguably
> true.  Lack of money did not stop all the tyrants in history (I will grant
> you that some of them 'perceived' a lack of money).  I do think that a
> guaranteed income would get rid of a lot of problems, for sure.  "If I give
> you some money would you stop robbing me?"  I think that's a fair trade.
> What would be even better is that if the lower classes banded ('banded
> together' is redundant) and formed a political party.  Put enough of them
> together and they will have plenty of money, and will get donations from
> progressives etc.   bill w

Spike is not making grand statements. You think in terms of big evils  
like Stalin, but what of the little evils like someone whoring out  
their nine-old daughter to make rent? Do you truly not see Spike's  
point that poverty is the cause of much suffering in the world? Notice  
that I said suffering. I don't believe in evil. Evil is superstition.  
There is only selfishness and altruism. You may try to convince me  
otherwise.

> Maybe you should read Adler, of Freud, Jung and Adler.  His main motive was
> power.

This we share with all primates.

> I shall never relinquish this point:  if you only see one motive for
> something, you are not looking deeply enough.  Remember that the id may be
> getting many kinds of jollies through one activity.  Power not only brings
> money, it brings finger up to those who said you were worthless, maybe even
> their mothers.  Some people describe power as a sexual thing, better than
> orgasms.    What kind of power?  Over whom?  For what purposes?  Complex.
>
> In psychology, not even Pavlov's dog is simple.

In psychology, reproducibility seems less important than simply  
publishing results of wishful one-offs. Sex is generally the purpose  
of power, at least in terms of primate hierarchies. Strange how  
evolutionary biology gives such explanatory power in psychology.

Incidentally more to the point of the subject line, there are actually  
6 generally accepted techniques of totalitarianism that were penned by  
the two political scientists that coined the term totalitarianism,   
Carl Joachim Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski:

1. Elaborate guiding ideology.
2. Single mass party, typically led by a dictator.
3. System of terror, using such instruments as violence and secret police.
4. Monopoly on weapons.
5. Monopoly on the means of communication.
6. Central direction and control of the economy through state planning.

This is encouraging because it suggests that so long as ordinary  
American citizens are well-armed, the United States can never become a  
totalitarian state. It also suggests that appeals to morality or other  
ideology highly suspect. The road to hell is paved with "good"  
intentions.

Stuart LaForge