The ongoing transformation to the worse and how this possibly rises hope
There seems to be a "balance" between "good and bad" that cannot be controlled by either side - perhaps for good reason?
This is basically not meant to be a philosophical reflection, as the title might suggest. But a little philosophy - besides courage to use your own mind - can help to align our inner compass in times of great upheaval so that it points back in the direction of hope rather than despair.
Almost everywhere in the world, the signs have been pointing to a storm since the beginning of the Plandemic and later also the Ukraine conflict. A storm that threatens to break the Western “democracies” in particular. Fundamental rights are being undermined, any opposition to the prevailing narrative is being de facto eliminated, economic systems are collapsing, and social unrest is being promoted by the division of societies. Politics has hijacked science and education - the development of free thought and the formation of opinion has been severely disrupted. This is undoubtedly the path to totalitarianism on a global scale.
According to Hannah Arendt, for totalitarianism to have a chance of success, three essential and closely related phenomena are required: mass movement, the leading role of the elite in directing those masses, and the use of relentless propaganda.
The mass movement or, preceding it, the mass formation
“For its establishment and permanence, totalitarianism depends, as a first step, on the support of the masses, which it gains by exploiting a sense of permanent crisis and fear in society. Fear feeds the masses' desire for constant “action”, which those in charge use to show leadership and ward off the threat identified as endangering society as a whole.”
Nothing else is what we can observe at present: People are put in fear, be it by the proclamation of a "killer virus”, by the threatening escalation of the Ukraine war into a third world war, or by the approaching end of the world due to a supposed climate or energy “crisis”.
The result is a huge and willing band of helpers (“the masses”) who further consolidate the position of the ruling regime and even relieve it of the work of keeping unwelcome opposition in check or stamping it out. This can currently be observed in almost all Western "democracies" and other countries.
Intermediate question: Who are the so-called elites?
Wherever you look, you get the feeling that we are ruled only by criminals. Biden, Fauci, Gates, Bourla, Tedros, Schwab, Lauterbach, von der Leyen and countless other actors in more or less powerful positions seem to have conspired to bring the world under their complete control. Like gods, they determine the fates of people to whom these rulers have long since lost all emotional contact and whose well-being they literally don't give a damn about. And yet, many people follow them without giving it a second thought.
But is it really a conspiracy on this level or are there in fact quite different powers behind the scenes, like puppeteers making the puppets dance on the world stage? CJ Hopkins aptly calls them "GloboCap" – the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, Goldman & Sachs, and so on - all deeply interconnected through NGOs, foundations and the WEF. Evidence of this can be found in abundance - if you look for it. The problem is that most of the people don't do this, because they already have enough problems of their own to get their lives in order somehow. So they can't be concerned with things they (obviously) have no control over anyway.
And propaganda does the rest…
The most important and ultimate tool of totalitarian movements in non-totalitarian society is to establish real control over the masses by winning them over through propaganda: "Only the rabble and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism; the masses must be won over through propaganda”, Hannah Arendt explains.
Both the deliberate instrumentalization of fear and the constant reference to "science" by political actors and the mass media in the Corona crisis were extremely successful as propaganda tools. Furthermore, we can assume that (not only) in the case of the Ukrainian war, propaganda is one of the most important “weapons” with which the actors involved try to convince the masses of their view of things.
The leaders of the masses are primarily concerned with adapting reality to their own interpretations and, where necessary, lies. Whereby their propaganda is "characterized by their extreme contempt for facts as such" (Hannah Arendt). Supposed “truths” are thus created by means of propaganda.
But if truth is the first casualty of any war, as the saying goes, the protagonists resort to the last resort: they fabricate their own reality, which they impose on the masses by force if necessary. Then totalitarianism drops all its masks and shows its teeth. And as history has shown all too often, it is then too late to tame this beast and disaster takes its course. Around 100 million dead in two world wars speak an unmistakable language.
Reality vs. fabricated reality
So is there really no solution to the dilemma we find ourselves in as a global community? – When legal systems utterly fail to hold those responsible accountable, and propaganda has such a tight grip on large sections of societies that rational thought and reason can no longer prevail, – when the totalitarian beast is on the rise?
I maintain that there is. And its name is "reality".
I would go even further and say that we are on the verge of a tipping point where reality no longer waits at the door, but enters with a loud crash.
This is the point at which the totalitarians' fabricated reality will collapse.
Every step taken by the totalitarians, which brings more misery, despair and death to humanity, is another step towards this tipping point. The Romans, Stalinist Russia, the Nazis, and every other totalitarian system in history failed at this very point sooner or later.
No one can say how long it will take “GloboCap” to reach this point, but of one thing I am certain: reality will win out in the end. And this is what I meant when I spoke at the beginning of this text of the inner compass that, through this certainty, can be refocused on hope instead of despair. And as for our actions, let's not allow them to continue to dehumanize us!
Your path is not a straight line. It is more like a torus. You keep coming back to things you thought you understood and then realize deeper truths and gain new energies.
PS: On the subject of totalitarianism, I also highly recommend visiting the substacks by CJ Hopkins and Margaret Anna Alice Through the Looking Glass.