To Do Great Damage

Probably the most significant of the reasons why the state won’t lose its powers is that the great majority of people everywhere want it to have those powers. They also want, of course, the state to use its powers in ways that feather their nests and make life miserable for people they dislike.

Are We Sure It Can’t It Happen Here?

One runs a risk whenever one cites the 20th century’s great terror states while discussing current ominous developments in the western democracies. Apparent comparisons of the United States or western and central European countries to Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia will inevitably be hooted down with accusations of alarmist conspiracy-mongering and worse, shameful ahistoricity. Nevertheless, that must not keep us from noticing and pointing to contemporary events that bear an eerie resemblance, however slight, to things that went on in those totalitarian terror states.