Totalitarian Nature Research Articles

Powerful medicine: The Synergism of Free Speech and Cybercommunications in American Multicultural Democracy

In the 1995 film Crimson Tide, an American submarine commander, played by Gene Hackman, reprimands his executive officer, played by Denzel Washington, for expressing doubts about a decision in the presence of the crew. Well aware of the totalitarian nature of his leadership, and precluding any objections his executive officer may have about the abridgement of his rights of free speech, the commander emphatically pronounces We're here to preserve democracy, not to practice it. The sub commander's theory of command, exemplified by this seemingly paradoxical form~dation, brings the world to the brink of nuclear war by attempting to fire his warheads in de-fiance of protocol, a war prevented ' only by the democratically principled executive officer's refusal to submit to his commanding officer's self-willed cancellation of the rules of democracy. Americans have historically suspended democratic principles when national security or certain values or institutions Christianity, the Union, family, and, in the South, slavery seemed threatened1 Wartime has been regarded as an acute situation critical enough to warrant suppression of free speech and free media, as evidenced by the Alien and Se-

Althusserian Theory: From Scientific Truth to Institutional History

Althusserian Theory: From Scientific Truth to Institutional History

From Resistance to Liberation Theology: German Theologians and the Non/ Resistance to the National Socialist Regime

In this article I wish to examine the connection between both Christian and Christian to the National Socialist regime in Germany and the development of a new political in postwar Germany. By theology I mean the academic reflection upon the Christian faith; and by resistance I mean the opposition in word and action to Hitler's or any related form of ideological theory and praxis. I wish to approach this complex subject matter from our current need to discuss the theological implications of the overall lack of organized theological to the Nazi regime. Of course, the Barmen Declaration of 1934 and its spiritual father, Karl Barth, are well remembered for their brave attack on the Nazi regime; and the thoughts, actions, and long suffering of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Niemoller, and other individual Christians are not forgotten. But my thesis is that there was at first no constructive of to the National Socialist revolution in the Third Reich. Moreover, at that time there was no solid theological foundation available upon which a of could have been constructed. Dimensions of such a of only emerged in response to the unfolding totalitarian nature of Hitler's regime-too late, however, to affect the regime itself in any significant way. In the first section I shall reflect briefly on the political dimension of in Germany prior to 1933. In the second section I shall review theological motives in the emerging Christian to the Nazi regime. In the third section I shall discuss contemporary approaches to theological that have been developed in reaction to the failure of much of German during Hitler's reign.

Les changements dans les États communistes : l'importance de la société civile

The changes in the communist countries: the importance of civil society The changes in Eastern Europe and m the USSR are the products of many factors, both internal and external. Internally, the major stimulus for reform comes from "civil society ", which comprises all individual or group activities independent of any official impulse (state or party). Independent activities are stimulated hy various economic, cultural or social factors which affect the life of individuals. For the reform to he achieved, the stimuli must he greater than those from the government or the party, and civil society must reach an adequate level or organization. The totalitarian nature of East European regimes has produced an antago­nistic relation between civil society and the state. This relation is at the bottom of the basic changes which are affecting Eastern Europe, whose analysis makes it possible to suggest various forms of conflict management.

Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia

Jan Gross describes the terrors of the Soviet occupation of the lands that made up eastern Poland between the two world wars: the Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia. His lucid analysis of the revolution that came to Poland from abroad is based on hundreds of first-hand accounts of the hardship, suffering, and social chaos that accompanied the Sovietization of this poorest section of a poverty-stricken country. Woven into the author's exploration of events from the Soviet's German-supported aggression against Poland in September of 1939 to Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, these testimonies not only illuminate his conclusions about the nature of totalitarianism but also make a powerful statement of their own. Those who endured the imposition of Soviet rule and mass deportations to forced resettlement, labor camps, and prisons of the Soviet Union are here allowed to speak for themselves, and they do so with grim effectiveness.

Marxism & Militarism

Professor Payne reports here the finding that Marxist states tend to maintain significantly higher levels of military capability than do the non-Marxist states. This tendency on their part, he argues, is not to be understood as a calculated response to specific foreign and domestic policy goals; it is implicit in their ideology and in the totalitarian nature of their regimes. He goes on to suggest that this tendency should be kept in mind while developing American policy toward arms control agreements with the Soviet Union and toward Marxist attempts to take control of governments in the third world.

Man's existential dilemma today

Abstract In this paper an attempt is made to show how man's existential dilemma is reflected in the prominent contemporary philosophical alternatives and that this dilemma is the result of functionalism, operationalism and actionalism that dominate man's thinking today. It is this way of thinking that is mirrored in contemporary positivism, Marxism and existentialism. And it is in this form that contemporary thinking dominates the mind of the man in the street and the societies of East and West. The attempt of the respective contemporary philosophical alternatives to solve the problem of man's freedom and authentic existence by the abolition of philosophy as reflective or transcendental theory and merging it with practice as seen by each of these alternatives leads to the levelling down or absorption of the free, reflective and dissenting individual by the respective philosophical alternatives. Because of the totalitarian nature of the respective contemporary philosophical alternatives their attempt at es...