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The New Man-Do we have the resolve to defeat the new totalitarians?
Frontpagemagazine ^ | March 20, 2019 | Michael Ledeen

Posted on 03/21/2019 5:28:43 AM PDT by SJackson

The 20th Century was the era of the “new man,” and leftist leaders are preaching the same failed sermon again today. From Mussolini to Mao, the totalitarians of both left and right recognized that their ideologies required a basic change in human nature. Italian fascism, emerging from the Great War, insisted that the heroes of the battlefield were the only ones qualified to lead Italy to new glories. As time passed, Mussolini maintained that it was imperative to train a new generation, with the qualities demonstrated by the war fighters, to govern the country. Fascist Italy needed a new kind of human being, a new fascist man. This imperative gave rise to the well-known fascist institutions, from ideologically-driven schools to youth organizations and paramilitary bands, as well as the mass rallies that fused individual Italians into a fascist mob.

Mussolini set the model for the others. Hitler permitted only Aryans to hold high office, and though this practice was often observed in the breach (Goering famously quipped, “I decide who is an Aryan"), it was certainly official doctrine, and was relentlessly preached to the German people. Like the fascists, the Nazis herded the people into officially approved groups, from the Hitler Youth to the schools and the many ideological bands. Hitler ritualized the relationship between leader and masses in his famous rallies. You can see the dynamic in the celebrated film The Triumph of the Will.

Stalin officially called for the creation of a “new socialist man,” stripped of “bourgeois” thought and habits. This required extensive indoctrination, both in didactic settings—schools and Communist Party meetings and discussions--and in the interminable speeches from the rulers.

It is therefore no surprise that perhaps the most brilliant book of the 20th century was Elias Canetti’s Crowds and Power, which is still in print, and is an indispensable guide to mass movements. Canetti, who won the Nobel prize for literature, traces the steps in the creation of the modern crowd, the prototypical form of organization for totalitarian states. The totalitarian regimes wanted nothing less than a reworking of human nature, and they were notably successful. It alarms me, therefore, when our contemporary political leaders speak in the same terms, as when Senator Kamala Harris says we must change people in order to successfully enact her climate change schemes. They are the new totalitarians. It is no accident that mass rallies are so popular among our radical leftists. That, like their doctrines, are textbook cases of the totalitarian impulse, and like the mass movements of the last century, have developed political rituals to hail their leaders and denigrate their enemies. Like the fascists, Nazis, and Communists, contemporary totalitarians have declared ideological warfare against Jews and capitalism. They need a “new man” to swell their ranks.

Can they win? They might. Their predecessors were exceedingly successful. Twentieth-century totalitarians dominated much of the West for quite a long time, and only two desperate wars—one hot, one cold—defeated them. Before that, the Communists, fascists and Nazis were supported with the sort of wild enthusiasm that we can see in today’s mass demonstrations and rallies. They were tough to beat. We didn’t reason the Germans and Italians out of Nazism and fascism; we crushed them on the battlefield. We had to rally the opposition against the Soviet Empire after seventy years. In all three cases, there were millions of Americans who supported out enemies, and we had to fight them as well. 

The search for the “new man” has been going on for a century, and it was quite a hit the last time it was tried. It will be a tough fight once again. We are more corrupt and less educated than we once were. The would-be totalitarians today generate myths that would have been the envy of the ideologues of the last century. Can we muster the resolve to take them on and defeat them? 

That this question is very much unanswered shows how hard it’s going to be.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: democrats; newman; totalitarians; tyranny

1 posted on 03/21/2019 5:28:43 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: SJackson

Wow, nice picture of a typical DNC meeting!!!


2 posted on 03/21/2019 5:31:10 AM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: SJackson

I once struggle through reading Hannah Arendt’s “The origins of Totalitarianism”. Most difficult read I ever survived. It was a language structure issue. Had to often, re-read a sentence at a time slowly and think hard about it. Clearly she was not primary in English.

I never came to terms with what I intended to accomplish reading the book. Still cannot understand how the Jews got caught up in the Holocaust and how so many were simply exterminated without total rebellion.

But my take has for a long time been.

“Totalitarianism in all Forms is Evil!”

ALL FORMS:

Progressive, Socialist, Marxist, Fascist, Communist, Dictator, Islamist, **Bureaucrap** (aka Deep State)

It makes no difference what they call themselves, they are all evil. They totally lose attachment to humanity and reality.


3 posted on 03/21/2019 6:21:48 AM PDT by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: SJackson

Mussolini set the model for the others. Hitler permitted only Aryans to hold high office, and though this practice was often observed in the breach (Goering famously quipped, “I decide who is an Aryan”),


Sound familiar?


4 posted on 03/21/2019 6:24:48 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: SJackson

Can they win? They might.


Folks, they are on the verge of destroying everything.

The battle will be fought and won in many little skirmishes as well as big ones. Are we engaged?


5 posted on 03/21/2019 6:29:21 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: SJackson

This time “The New Man” is a genderqueer snowflake with a man bun. I’m not too worried.


6 posted on 03/21/2019 6:35:10 AM PDT by bk1000 (I stand with Trump)
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To: SJackson

Marxism does have a new, “evolved” human as the goal and centerpiece of it’s philosophy. That is doomed to failure as the nature of man is not controllable.


7 posted on 03/21/2019 8:14:47 AM PDT by jdsteel (Americans are Dreamers too!!!)
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To: PeterPrinciple

“Are we engaged?”

No, unfortunately. Getting Republicans off the couch & onto the streets to register more Republican voters is the least we should be doing, and even that is like pushing a boulder up a mountainside.
We should be organizing at the local & state levels, attending meetings, & getting elected to local councils & school boards. But most of us dont even know what the communists are teaching our kids unless we read about it here, after it’s been taught in schools for years.

We’re reactionaries. We go about our oblivious little lives while allowing our communities & our country to go to hell, then at most, we bitch about it in online forums, our butts remaining comfortably planted on the couch.
And we keep handing over the contents of our wallets, no questions asked, to the very leftists who are destroying us.


8 posted on 03/21/2019 10:58:03 AM PDT by mumblypeg (I've seen the future, brother. It is murder. --L. Cohen)
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To: mumblypeg
 
 
"Engaged" has multiple definitions these days. The modern radicals have a couch problem too and are going about their glorious revolution the same way they approach dating & interpersonal relationships - they figure they can text, Twitter & Facebook their way to a satisfying result. Thankfully we haven't seen the level of commitment and engagement radicals had exercised in past decades, like from the 1970's and earlier. They were not shy about using bullets and bombs back in those days. People may have concerns about Antifa - definitely not in the same league with those of the past in its current form. Of course there is the chance that may change one day, but right now they are an inept nuisance.
 
On the flip side, when it comes to those who truly love the country, normalcy bias is the greatest challenge to overcome. With some they may be aware of the daily political scuffling, but it's like background noise to them, then there are others who are aware of issues but there is no broad comprehension as to the depths of the struggle at hand, and others yet that do have a good awareness but no solid ideas or strategy on how to participate in fighting it. Only advice I can give is to not get too distracted by the daily fisticuffs in D.C., and pay careful attention to local situations - that's where the real battle in earnest is at. It is said "all politics is local" and it is certainly true. Do not allow nor tolerate Bolshevik pests to occupy bureaucracies or elected offices from state to county down to local. Do not suffer them. Besides being capable of corruption & tyranny by their own devices, those would be the people who would enforce upon you any oppressive policy in support of totalitarians at the federal level. The overall leftist strategy is rather apparent, which is to capture every government office and institution, all the way down to dogcatcher as part of an overall plan to eradicate any opposition to their cultural, political and social objectives. The very basic thing any good citizen can do is to deny them access to the levers of power, wherever they are.
 
 

9 posted on 03/21/2019 3:04:01 PM PDT by lapsus calami (What's that stink? Code Pink ! ! And their buddy Murtha, too!)
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To: lapsus calami

Good post.
We have a local Trumpian situation in my very small town right now.
3 new councilmen are uncovering some very shocking budgetary irregularities.
The mayor (!) & the ruling clique, who’ve had hands in the cookie jar for decades, dont like this.
So the mayor is actually backing a recall effort to unseat the fiscally-responsible new guys.
Guess what the accusations are? Racism & sexism, of course.


10 posted on 03/22/2019 11:51:08 AM PDT by mumblypeg (I've seen the future, brother. It is murder. --L. Cohen)
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To: SJackson

Great article, and thanks for posting. My ears tend to prick up whenever I hear a Progressive state that he or she intends to “transform” society - that actually means the people in it are to be designed and molded to that person’s taste. These are people who stoutly insist they believe in freedom and continue that they only want to control what we eat, drink, read, wear, drive, say, and think, their moral and intellectual superiority obligating them to be totalitarian for the Good Of All. It’s a massive and very dangerous case of self-deception.


11 posted on 03/22/2019 12:10:12 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: mumblypeg
 
 
Well - if they haven't already, the 3 new councilmen need to be busy getting law enforcement involved - the local DA, state's attorney general, whatever it takes. A forensic financial investigation will outlive any potential recall.
 
 

12 posted on 03/25/2019 2:34:33 PM PDT by lapsus calami (What's that stink? Code Pink ! ! And their buddy Murtha, too!)
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