"A soft totalitarian regime directly restricts freedoms of speech and the press, thereby curbing the effect of public opinion on the government. Under soft authoritarianism (as in Japan, for example), such freedoms exist on paper but are attenuated in part by cartelization of the news media--press clubs in Japan can impose collective or individual penalties on journalists who reports news that irritates the state---and also by narrow channels of access to advertising, state owned broadcasting, and state licensing of school textbooks. The public is better informed in soft authoritarian countries because there are always ways around press clubs and cartels, but public opinion remains only a mild constraint on the government. Whereas a soft totalitarian state will employ direct suppression of offending books, imprisonment of authors., state control of internet servers, and dismissal or imprisonment of dissidents, soft authoritarianism achieves its ends through peer pressure, bullying, fear of ostracism, giving priority to group norms, and eliciting conformity through social sanctions of various kinds. Under both types of regimes, elections are usually to one degree or another only formalities, behind which permanent state officialdoms actually govern." Chalmers Johnson "Blowback" page 150-151. Which do we have in the US at this point? It certainly is not a democracy with dissidents and whistle blowers being thrown in jail!
Posted on: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 23:38:55 +0000
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