The “Gentleness” of “Soft” Totalitarianism

Rod Dreher. “It’s possible to miss the onslaught of totalitarianism, precisely because we have a misunderstanding of how its power works. In 1951, poet and literary critic Czesław Miłosz, exiled to the West from his native Poland as an anti-communist dissident, wrote that Western people misunderstand the nature of communism because they think of it… Read More The “Gentleness” of “Soft” Totalitarianism

The Riot That Tore the Democratic Party Apart: Chicago 1968.

Historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook on “How the New Deal Coalition Fell Apart” in the DNC Chicago riot of 1968. After a moment of goofy kidding around mimicking the “Yippies,” Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland tell the most dramatic story of this seminal event which many of us saw on our TVs, horrifying our… Read More The Riot That Tore the Democratic Party Apart: Chicago 1968.

China Recipe for Total Control: Army of Eyes and Ears

NYT: Reviving a Mao-era surveillance campaign, the authorities are tracking residents, schoolchildren and businesses to forestall any potential unrest. “The wall in the police station was covered in sheets of paper, one for every building in the sprawling Beijing apartment complex. Each sheet was further broken down by unit, with names, phone numbers and other… Read More China Recipe for Total Control: Army of Eyes and Ears