25 January 2011

Desert ceases to operate

A totalitarian regime achieves the ultimate breakdown of civil society by forcing friends and family to denounce each other. The utter atomization of society comes about when everyone becomes capable of spying on everyone else. 
Wholesale spying breaks down the possibility of people's building up trust with each other. If building trust becomes impossible, then gift exchange becomes meaningless; and if gift exchange is meaningless, then desert ceases to operate as a metric of reality and relationships. Thus is justice eradicated from the social order. 
Totalitarianism, like the absolute free market, eliminates the possibility of justice-as-deservedness. 

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