“Like fundamentalist terror, totalitarian terror leaves no
aspect of life exempt from the battle being waged. The
state is felt to be the apotheosis of political and natural
law, and it strives to extend that law over all of
humanity. Reality, Arendt suggested, never modifies
totalitarian ideas; events do not prove those ideas wrong
or diminish belief. Instead, totalitarianism modifies
perceptions of reality to suit the ideas; the world is
changed to fit with the vision of totalitarianism. Nothing
is allowed to stand in the way of totalitarian ideas.
Opposition is guilt, punishment is death.
“If contemporary Islamic terror can be considered a variety
of totalitarian terror, it becomes clearer just how limited
the injustice theory and the question of “root causes” are.
No doubt, injustices and policies can be argued over, but
not as root causes of terror. Totalitarianism stands above
such niceties. No injustices, separately or together,
necessarily lead to totalitarianism and no mitigation of
injustice, however defined, will eliminate its unwavering
beliefs, absolutist control and unbounded ambitions. Claims
of “root causes” are distractions from the real work at
hand.”
– <a href = http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/17/arts/17CONN.html?ex=1007003570&ei=1&en=7114992e4320f6b3 target = new>Edward Rothstein, New York Times today.
The Dish 