Democracy and Totalitarianism. A Response to Ovidiu Gherasim-Proca

Résumé

In response to a recent critique, this article reaffirms that the current political developments point towards an unprecedented body of totalitarian methods and techniques that could be used by modern governments. Their task of silencing critique, manufacture consensus, extend surveillance and punish dissent is even easier to put in place due to the new political, cultural and mental environment. This is the alliance between the overwhelming state bureaucracy, jealous for any individual space of liberty, and late capitalism, an economic system struggling to adapt to and fully use the new technological means at the disposal of the state bureaucracy. This alliance is the most formidable obstacle for a free mind, for the free speech and for the practical liberty of former citizens, now reduced to simple objects of the joint economic and state power structures. Its victory over the free spirit would pose a much heavy burden on the next generations. If this alliance will dominate all public space, there will not be valuable external forces to fight and succeed, as it was the case with the defeated Nazism. The only hope will come from the inner erosion and the organic dismantling of this new power structure.