The Total State: How Liberal Democracies Become Tyrannies by Auron MacIntyre

Auron MacIntyre is a columnist, lecturer, and author focusing on the application of political theory.

This is an excellent book on evolution of politics from a constitutional Republic to a managerial autocratic totalitarian State that serves its oligarchic and corporate masters.

How democracy leads to totalitarianism

"maintaining power in a democratic system means maintaining control over how the populace perceives and understands the world around them. As each branch of government becomes more vulnerable to the democratic process, control of power hinges increasingly on the ability to manipulate the masses.

Instead of different societal forces with different bases of power being forced to the table and checking each other’s interests, power becomes dependent on one source: public opinion."

"With the collapse of religious, aristocratic, and tribal power, monied and managerial interests are the only ones allowed to elevate elites within the hierarchy. Oligarchy becomes the only force capable of simultaneously influencing mass media, mass education, and mass bureaucracy, which are the key levers of power for influencing mass democracy. All three branches quickly fall under the influence of oligarchical domination."

Once the oligarchs and special interest groups acquired totalitarian power, they used State power to acquire more power and money. The result is there for all to see.

Deep State as a loose federation of tribes

The author claims that there is no single organization or group of people running the Total State. The 'Deep State' is a loose federation of tribes that work towards their own interests. Their sole interest is to acquire power and money.

"To be clear, the Cathedral is not some conspiracy of Illuminati members. Yarvin does not believe such a conspiracy exists. What he means are those players responsible for crafting and popularizing ideas, mainly the news and entertainment media, the public education system, the permanent bureaucracy inside the federal government, and, most importantly, the universities."

"this requires a high degree of message coordination and implementation without a formal organization getting it done,"

COVID tyranny

"The experts who had locked down the entire country were drunk on the incredible power they had amassed in the space of only a few months and had no interest in letting it go."

"The government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic is an instructive example of this. The entire ordeal perfectly demonstrates how quickly the illusion of individual rights and limited government that modern liberal democracies have constructed can be handwaved away when the total state identifies an opportunity to expand its power."

"Whatever the pretext for lockdowns, vaccine mandates, closures, and the rest, those who were working to support the growing biomedical surveillance state were considered friends, and those who opposed it were enemies. Friends would be granted special privileges, while enemies would be punished at every turn."

"This selective application of the law was not hypocrisy, but the establishment of a new hierarchy."

Political propaganda everywhere

"The point is that in the total state, no media is ever truly about its stated topic but is rather an opportunity to further state propaganda. The dissemination of the narrative becomes the primary goal of each and every media outlet."

"Movies, novels, and even comic books are rife with political messaging. Political allegory and satire have always had their place in storytelling, but they have since come to dominate everything. Even children’s books are full of political propaganda."

Threat of Social Media tamed

Social media was a threat to State's monopoly on power. However, it has been tamed by State control of Social Media companies.

"With every citizen able to instantaneously communicate his opinions on a mass scale, the threat posed to elites who rely on popular sovereignty for power was substantial. New methods had to be deployed. This is why political opinions are now routinely censored by social media companies, though this is actually the least effective method of censorship because it is so obvious."

"Direct exercises of power tend to bring attention to those responsible for them, and people take notice. The elite would like to avoid engaging in obvious censorship, as it gives up the game, so more subtle methods are preferred."

"The threat of losing one’s job or social standing is a far more powerful weapon. Sure, you might go viral in your video denouncing the government, but the media will proclaim you a bigot in front of tens of millions of people and you will be out of work by the end of the day."

Universities and totalitarian State

"Major universities are increasingly moving away from standardized tests as their main tool of admissions selection in favor of personal essays and résumés with a heavy emphasis on community involvement. This is a thinly veiled shift toward political loyalty as the key decider for admittance."

"University education has become the portal through which almost everyone who enters the elite must pass—which means the vast majority of those who rule in the future will have been chosen on the basis of ideology, not merit."

Shaming does not work

"Shame requires a shared ethical framework, usually based on religion and modified by social custom. For shame to be effective, the target must have some understanding that what they’re doing is wrong and be surrounded by others who apply social pressure until the behavior is corrected."

Collapse of the Totalitarian State

When will the State collapse?

"The imperial core becomes decadent and incompetent, unable to manage itself much less the outlying provinces, while capable regional leaders push for autonomy. The successful provinces are the ones that take on essential functions that the central authority can no longer reliably provide. The central authority may grumble, but if regional leadership is competently providing services, then it has very little leverage against the governors of these provinces."

Surviving collapse of the Totalitarian State

Collapse of the Totalitarian State will lead to people moving to regions where they can live insulated from the totalitarian State.

"The successful provinces are the ones that take on essential functions that the central authority can no longer reliably provide. The central authority may grumble, but if regional leadership is competently providing services, then it has very little leverage against the governors of these provinces."

"those who make it through will be those who deny themselves ease and luxury while actively choosing duty and responsibility."

"No one chooses to live at the end of an empire, but this is where we find ourselves. We must be the generation that plants trees we will not sit under, the generation willing to sacrifice for a better tomorrow. We must forge a future where true community thrives, where moral and cultural particularity flourish, where people are organic members of a society not mass-produced, where citizens are not socially engineered gears in a bureaucratic machine."

"At the individual level, this means forming strong families, taking on the responsibility of caring for our loved ones, and sacrificing some degree of leisure for the duties that come with dependence. Churches will need to return to their status as central community institutions responsible for the charitable functions that have been assumed by the state. Communities will need to take on responsibilities that their regional governments may not have the resources to tackle."

"The consolidation of local political power is also likely to cause communities to self-sort [self-organize]."

"The task ahead is difficult. Transitions from one epoch to another are always fraught with hardship and danger, but they also offer great opportunity. This will be an age that demands great leadership, dedication, and faith. A million small acts of courage and heroism will go unnoticed as people once again form into communities that can survive without the bureaucratic leviathan of massified social organization."












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