The Hawblog: Penn Won't Join the Pledge to be "A Servant" to Obama

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Thaddeus Russell said...: Right on, Penn. But pledging to be a servant to a national leader is more than un-American -- it's totalitarian.; 3:42 PM
Mark said...: I also thought of "Triumph of the Will" where the soldiers all say, one after another, which part of Germany they are from; or the poems and songs of praise for Stalin.

It is not totalitarian in the sense that these people are being forced to say this with a gun to their head like at some show trial or something. That's the genius of totalitarian systems: so much of it is grass roots.

We obviously have to be careful here with our comparisons, however. While the bubbly feelings many have for the president seem overblown and might, with some soundbytes and images sent out over the media like home-made propaganda, bear some resemblance to totalitarianism, we are a long way in America from anything like Nazi Germany. Drawing the comparison too closely triviliazes what real totalitarianism is.; 2:53 AM