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Friday, June 01, 2012

Totalitarian Democracy

 
Jacob L. Talmon, who wrote seminal works on totalitarianism, noted that there is a collective mindset (which originates with Jean Jacques Rousseau) that sees democracy as only meaningful if the individual’s interest is aligned with the collective interest. Talmon coined the term “totalitarian democracy” to define this concept. Totalitarian democracy as an idea is the progenitor of Stalinism and the excesses of the French Revolution. It is an idea that is embodied in the statism of the Obama administration. Totalitarian democracy is seen in the New Jewish Agenda, which perceives collectivism as the solution to social problems. There is no room in this philosophy for an individual who stands at variance with the collective. Just as there is no room in these synagogues for those who do not agree that the collective will of the majority should define and limit the political interests of the individual.
That is the lesson of what happened in Florida. That is increasingly the lesson of this administration.
 
 

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