WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
George Orwell: “1984” (1949)
totalitarianism:
An extreme form of (see autocratic, oligarchic, despotic, and Procrustean) oppressive government with limitless power, that uses ruthless force to exert an absolute control over all individuals within a society. Regardless of other political orientation, historically, these forms of government are most often propelled under pretext ideologies of perpetual internal or external enmity, national security, mass fear, and some type of “common-good” objective. A totalitarian government not only commands total docility towards its powers, but also demands the individual’s total support and very explicit corroboration in controlling all others in the society. (Note, please see below: Cuba’s “duty to denounce” laws)
These systems of non-representative governments are led by a few or even by a single individual. Judicial rights and recourse are nonexistent. Extreme vigilance, power and fear over people have been further facilitated by some of the technological and scientific advances of the twentieth century. By definition, totalitarianism does not restrict its oppression to society’s public expressions such as journalistic freedom or political dissent. Brutally harsh controls are also exerted over all traditionally more personal elements within a society, including any and all aspects of human relations such as family, friends, education, religion, work, sexuality, and leisure time as well as most other forms of personal freewill or artistic expression.
Among many throughout the world, two of the more infamous totalitarian governments of our more recent past are Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia. Totalitarianism remains current in Mainland China and in Fidel Castro’s Cuba. We should remain conscious and resolute, in America and abroad, in confronting all such repression within the complexities of modern and future civilized societies.
In the name of “national security” Castro and his cohorts first dismantled Cuba’s judicial system and constitutional protections. Against all his original promises and pronouncements, Cuba’s venerated Constitution of 1940 remains suspended by Fidel Castro for over 43 years thus creating and perpetuating a political climate and a rational for committing innumerable documented and undocumented atrocities on the Cuban people. Throughout his reign, rampant totalitarian authority along with torture and execution continue to be commonplace methods of maintaining a status-quo. Despite any longevity, no government must ever be considered licit if it assumes power through deceit or maintains power through judicially unrestrained force.
Link: Cuban: ” Fusilados”
From 1900 to 1987, governments murdered 170 million people, well over four times the number of battle-deaths during that same period. Tragically, such inhumanity continues as the dangerous antithesis to democracies, republics and, individual human rights.
Often it is rationalized with a dialectic for “national security” a “new society”, “the new man”, “a better world”. Not only do the ends not justify the means but the ends ARE the means. Justice with Order & Order with Justice.
These systems of non-representative governments are led by a few or even by a single individual. Judicial rights and recourse are nonexistent. Extreme vigilance, power and fear over people have been further facilitated by some of the technological and scientific advances of the twentieth century. By definition, totalitarianism does not restrict its oppression to society’s public expressions such as journalistic freedom or political dissent. Brutally harsh controls are also exerted over all traditionally more personal elements within a society, including any and all aspects of human relations such as family, friends, education, religion, work, sexuality, and leisure time as well as most other forms of personal freewill or artistic expression.
Among many throughout the world, two of the more infamous totalitarian governments of our more recent past are Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia. Totalitarianism remains current in Mainland China and in Fidel Castro’s Cuba. We should remain conscious and resolute, in America and abroad, in confronting all such repression within the complexities of modern and future civilized societies.
In the name of “national security” Castro and his cohorts first dismantled Cuba’s judicial system and constitutional protections. Against all his original promises and pronouncements, Cuba’s venerated Constitution of 1940 remains suspended by Fidel Castro for over 43 years thus creating and perpetuating a political climate and a rational for committing innumerable documented and undocumented atrocities on the Cuban people. Throughout his reign, rampant totalitarian authority along with torture and execution continue to be commonplace methods of maintaining a status-quo. Despite any longevity, no government must ever be considered licit if it assumes power through deceit or maintains power through judicially unrestrained force.
Link: Cuban: ” Fusilados”
From 1900 to 1987, governments murdered 170 million people, well over four times the number of battle-deaths during that same period. Tragically, such inhumanity continues as the dangerous antithesis to democracies, republics and, individual human rights.
Often it is rationalized with a dialectic for “national security” a “new society”, “the new man”, “a better world”. Not only do the ends not justify the means but the ends ARE the means. Justice with Order & Order with Justice.
” They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.” Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
” I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” James Madison, fourth US president (1751-1836)
” There is no crueler tyranny than that which is exercised under the cover of law, and with the color of justice…” US v. Jannottie (1982)
CUBA
“Forty years after assuming power, the Castro government still prosecutes dissidents for peacefully expressing their views. Cuba currently stands alone in the hemisphere for this kind of human rights abuse: criminalizing free speech and association, imprisoning dissidents, and denying access to international human rights monitors.”
José Miguel Vivanco
Executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas division.
Human Rights Watch urges that crimes in Cuba’s penal code whose definitions violate international human rights norms should be repealed or much narrowed, including the severe penalties now imposed for: any contempt of authority, clandestine printing, illegal exit, defamation of institutions or mass organizations, and a failure to comply with one’s duty to denounce others.
To receive your free 13/8 ” pin please, enclose in self-addressed/postage-paid envelope:
CUBA
As well as outlining how Cuban laws criminalize free expression and association, the June 1999, Human Rights Watch report shows how a lack of independent judges and access to attorneys compromises the right to fair trial. The government’s failure to ensure due process rights makes Cuba’s use of the death penalty especially troubling, according to the report, which notes many past and recent executions by firing squad.
