totalitarianism, a 20th century term for tyranny

[JBFRAME at aol.com]

In a message dated 04/28/2001 6:58:25 PM Pacific Daylight Time, AREN5 at aol.com 
writes:


> Totalitarianism is a relatively new phenomenon, which has little to do with 
> WWI. It is the byproduct of twentieth century technology that facilitated 
> the 
> complete control of the masses which Hitler, Stalin, etc. sought. 
> Telephones, 
> listening devices, and transportation kept them constantly informed, and 
> allowed them to make decisions based on relatively current knowledge. The 
> 

The Romans had a very efficient system of delators who reported to the 
emperor.  This system worked well enough for most governments for over 
fifteen hundred years without much technology.  Secret police haunted the 
coffeehouses of Vienna in the 1840s.  Nicholas I had his system of informers &
 secret police that Stalin used as a model after the Decembrist revolt nearly 
threw him out.  All the bureaucrats of Europe & Asia kept their people under 
control with terror & ignorance & the religions allied themselves with 
Caesar. 

jbf
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20010429/04b892a3/attachment.html>