It’s a concept all right, and I believe it aptly describes the sociopolitical – or is it sociopathological? – condition in which we find ourselves in the post-COVID world, both in the United States and throughout the other Western so-called liberal democracies. It certainly seems to describe the direction in which our collective culture is heading.
Let’s define soft-core totalitarianism as a political system, characterized by two features: First, there is centralized, autocratic control of the state by the executive branch of the government and its cronies (the totalitarianism part).
Second, by design, the offenses to civil liberties are applied subtly and gradually enough, the standard of living is kept high enough, and a sufficient menu of seductive distractions are intentionally provided, that most individuals either don’t object, or don’t even notice (the soft-core part).
Soft-core totalitarianism can be readily contrasted with its hard-core counterpart, recent examples of which would be the killing fields of Khmer Rouge-era Cambodia, or the enforced starvation conditions of contemporary North Korea.
As with soft-core pornography, this comparison favorably disposes soft-core totalitarianism to the more pliant and undiscerning among us, who might say, “Well, yes, I suppose it isn’t ideal, but at least it’s not that horrible hard-core stuff!”
Also like soft-core pornography, soft-core totalitarianism is designed to possess a titillating and seductive quality that opposes one’s better moral judgment. To the weak-willed and soft-headed, the statement “You’ll own nothing and be happy” holds a similar appeal to “All the classiest girls, ready to talk about your deepest fantasies, just a phone call away.”
Soft-core totalitarianism was predicted by past seers who tried to warn us about where Western Civilization was headed. The leavening of tyranny with the intentional supply of banal distractions, creature comforts, and legalized drugs pepper their descriptions. They repeatedly describe a kind of semi-anesthetized, semi-tolerable dystopia:
“Films, football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.” ~ George Orwell
“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel.” ~ often attributed to Aldous Huxley
And of course, the granddaddy of them all:
“Give them bread and circuses, and they will never revolt.” ~ Juvenal
Ring any bells? If not, consider the following, all of which occurred contemporaneously to the COVID-era lockdowns, school closures, travel restrictions, mask and vaccine mandates and other assorted assaults on our civil rights:
- Liquor stores were deemed essential from the beginning and remained open for business throughout the entire duration of the COVID lockdowns.
- No fewer than 17 US States legalized recreational marijuana use since the COVID lockdowns began in March 2020.
- 33 US states have opened legalized sports betting markets since the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in May 2018.
- Over $220 billion has been wagered in sportsbooks in the USA since then.
- The US Border Patrol seized over 15,000 pounds of fentanyl at the Mexican border in 2022 – three times as much as in 2020.
- 110,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2022.
Still skeptical? Let me put it another way. I am no Orwell or Huxley (and certainly no Juvenal), but please indulge me, Dear Reader, as I offer you my own soft-core totalitarian dystopian narrative:
Read More HERE
I investigated COVID saw were it came from and many Doctors showing how to fix it with easy remedies, but these Doctors were blocked from the internet within a week.
ReplyDeleteOnce vaccines came out and Biden came in and he opened up the border I knew the vaccines were bogus as COVID was. None of the border crossers were forced to take the vaccines.
Nor anyone who worked in the White House, nor anyone who worked for big pharma, and so on. The exception list is online, and tells you they knew the vax was at least worthless, possibly dangerous.
DeleteAnyone paying attention to the unvaxxed invasion at the southern border should have known it was the lie of the century after safe and effective. If the people that made the last one possible keep their lives there is no justice.
ReplyDelete