RE: Totalitarian (the word)

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: RE: [PEN-L:26381] Totalitarian (the word)

Carrol writes: >Applied to any regime prior to Mussolini's the word ["totalitarianism"] is a crude anachronism. I think it has been applied to Plato, and it is true that some _modern_ authoritarian theories strongly suggest direct or indirect ties to Plato, and particularly to the _Republic_. <

yes, it's an anachronism. (I don't think it applied to Hitler's Germany or Stalin's USSR either.) Plato's "totalitarianism" really only applies --to the extent that it really does -- to the Guardians (who are brainwashed, lack individual property, control over who they marry, etc.) but not to the Republic as a whole. The lower orders are pretty much left alone: the idea is to answer Plato's still-relevant question of "who guards the Guardians?" (so that they won't be corrupted by power) by saying "they're under extreme discipline, like the U.S. Marines or the LAPD or the Catholic Priesthood, so they won't be corrupted." (Of course, we know what happens with the those groups...)

JD