30 January 2011

A juvenile universe

Totalitarian regimes construct themselves like secret societies that have been voided of their secrets. They operate with rituals and initiation ceremonies aimed at separating the inner core from the rest of the profane public. They conjure fictitious enemies who are themselves secret societies that wield (again, in the totalitarian fantasy world) inordinate power. They create a juvenile universe where the young imagination is just discovering the vastness of the world's processes and is overwhelmed by its complexities. 
In the economic sphere immaturity comes in the form of interminable growth; in the political sphere immaturity comes in the form of the predominance of fantasy over the facts of reality. 

No comments:

Post a Comment