Totalitarian ideologies are wholly incompatible with democracy, no matter how they might pretend otherwise to win a few elections. Those who believe everything should be politicized have a very different vision of representative government than the American Founders.
The whole idea behind representative government is to create a distinction between the public and private sphere - restraints on not just the power of the State, but its influence. You send representatives to Washington because it's NOT right outside your front door.
Restraining influence means there are aspects of our lives where the State has no business. It's not just a matter of restraining what the government can do, but what it should even TRY to do. That's even more important with a titanic centralized super-State like ours.
The deadly danger of totalitarianism, the politicization of everything, is that politics is inherently coercive. Politics without coercion is merely a discussion. There must be carrots and sticks, and sticks are the only way to get the carrots needed.
Totalitarians love to obscure this reality from their gullible marks by tarting politics up with benevolent, non-threatening language.
"Politics is just another name for things we all do together!"
"We're just going to reach a consensus and then get things done!"
"Politics is just another name for things we all do together!"
"We're just going to reach a consensus and then get things done!"
The antithesis of the totalitarian mindset would be something like the old chestnut: "Let's agree to disagree."
Or "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
Notice how both of those sayings have gone decidedly out of style these days?
Or "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
Notice how both of those sayings have gone decidedly out of style these days?
Totalitarianism is incompatible with free speech, democracy, and sovereign individual liberties because it assumes arguments will be "settled" and the "correct" conclusions will be imposed by force. Politicizing everything means introducing coercion into everything.
Coercion doesn't work if the targets can resist or escape, does it?
Totalitarians inevitably conclude that no one should be allowed to vote against, or even speak against, their policies and beliefs. Resistance and debate dilute the power needed to impose "correct" conclusions.
Totalitarians inevitably conclude that no one should be allowed to vote against, or even speak against, their policies and beliefs. Resistance and debate dilute the power needed to impose "correct" conclusions.
Totalitarian ideologies will never permit people to vote against "correct" ideas, once they gain enough power. The list of things people are not allowed to question, to vote against, to disobey grows longer. The corners of life that are not politicized grow ever smaller.
If you want healthy democracy and representative government, you should cultivate the opposite of the totalitarian mindset. Cherish and defend the parts of life that are not politicized - where people are not just technically free to choose, but their choices are respected. /end
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