Totalitarian

When I was in 5th grade my school had "field day." Did you ever have that, where there were races and egg tosses and dunk booths and rocket launching competitions and parents came with food? Good times...not sure those still go on, with testing and all...we need a field day test, that might ensure its survival, but I digress.

My 5th grade teacher was Todd Terryberry, and he was the coolest teacher ever. One day, during a particularly violent thunderstorm, he stopped the lesson and drew a picture of a boat floating on top of the ocean with a guy scuba diving down beneath it. It probably took him an hour to draw the entire picture, as he paused repeatedly to tell stories about the fish and the scuba guy and the boat. I will never forget the picture, which the Dali Lama reminded me of in an interview I recently read. He was asked if he ever got angry. He said sure, but that his anger was like waves on the top of the sea, which he watched from below as they went rushing by.

Given my anger these days, I could use a very large tank of compressed air.

For field day our class was Terryberry's Totalitarians. It wasn't like the term had been a recent vocabulary word. Rather, we picked the name by going through the dictionary, and the group of 4 who found the word had to explain it to the rest of the class, who then had to explain it to other classes, as no one knew what it meant...although the banner helped. The best artist in the class (not me, I was a runner, I ran the fastest 200 yard dash in 5th grade) painted our banner: a giant man with a hammer towering above a small picture of the school. The message was clear: we are in control of field day; now get out of our way.

Why are you with me at my 5th grade field day?

I'm writing this diary today because I think the term totalitarian might be one we need to reintroduce to America writ large. George S. Counts once argued that the biggest threat to democracy was not from anyone on the outside but from minorities on the inside. The biggest threat he saw was totalitarianism, something he argued children could be taught to recognize and stop...through public schools.

Counts' 8 Elements of Totalitarianism:

1. The organization of a disciplined party: let's call it neoconservative.

2. The formulation of a "grand program": let's call it the "Project for a New American Century."

3. The appeal to idealism and heroism: let's put our dear leader in a flight suit and let's spread freedom.

4. The cultivation of human weakness: Count's explained this as cultivating hatred toward class, race, or religion as a means of social control. Totalitarians, according to Counts "experience pleasure in the torture and suffering off others."  Go figure.

5. The undermining of social solidarity: let's hate the immigrants and let's hate the gays.

6. The creation of confusion: Counts: "the apostles of totalitarianism assiduously propagate half-truths and falsehoods in unqualified praise of their particular form of dictatorship." Can you say Mcllelan? How about Snow?

7. The arousing and spreading of terror: heh, listen to Counts: "...people are persuaded to believe the most fantastic tales about the savage and bloody actions or intentions of some adversary...that a small neighboring state is bent on aggression and conquest..."

8. The exploitation of the very processes and virtues of democracy: again, Counts: "...all totalitarian movements, whether of foreign or domestic origin, bend their energies to the overthrow of free institutions." Have you taken a moment to say goodbye to the 1st, 4th, 6th, and 8th amendments? To FEMA? To public schools? I'll give you a minute...

I say all 8 elements of totalitarianism are present in the current administration. Is it time for my tinfoil, or was Counts, back in 1941, onto something? Please take the poll.

I'll finish with Counts:

"If the American people should lose their democratic institutions, it would not be because those institutions had failed or because the ideals on which they rest are transient. Disaster will come only if the American people themselves, because of indifference, carelessness, or complacency, refuse to bestir themselves in time and to take the necessary steps to practice and defend the ways of democracy."

The necessary step is obviously impeachment, for the good of the country and the rest of the world. Progressives need to sound byte the reasons for impeachment, to frame it so that we can build a diverse coalition in support of the process. I think the word totalitarian might do it. Fascist, despite being a damn good fit, has too much baggage for middle America, and FUCKING NUTS is offensive.

Thoughts?