Soft Totalitarianism
Live Not by Lies
"We have placed too much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life.”
A totalitarian society is one in which an ideology seeks to displace all prior traditions and institutions with the goal of bringing all aspects of society under control of that ideology. Wherever totalitarian philosophy has ruled, it has begun to destroy the essence of man - Hannah Arendt[1]
Soft totalitarianism has the same goal, but it is therapeutic, it comes to you under the guise of helping and healing…. Many conservatives today fail to grasp the gravity of this threat, dismissing it as mere “political correctness”-a previous generation’s disparaging term for so-called “wokeness.” - Rod Dreher[2]
“Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from the trees in the garden? … “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” - Genesis 3:1c & 3:4 NLT
Hard totalitarianism is easy to see. It is Soviet tanks rolling through your streets. It is the secret police in the former East Germany bugging your home, following you, arresting you, torturing you, and imprisoning you with a show trial or no trial. Soft totalitarianism, thanks to advances in technology, is coming to us via the surveillance culture. It is sort of a cross between Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World. In 1984, there was a telescreen in your home that could monitor your life 24/7. Winston Smith, the central character often retreated to a small corner of his apartment where the camera could not see. There he could engage in a very subversive activity, reading. They not only wanted to dictate what you read and said, but ultimately what you thought. In Huxley’s Brave New World, no one cared to read because they had substituted pleasure and comfort for thinking. They, as Neil Postman wrote in the 1980s, were amusing themselves to death.
Soft totalitarianism won’t be enforced with prisons, it will punish you in more subtle ways; it will grade you regarding the controlling societal narrative. If you support it, you will be rewarded with better job opportunities and loans. If, however, you are considered a racist, sexist, or homophobe, many of these benefits will be slowly but surely taken from you via algorithm. This is not primarily from the government, it is actually much more controlled by major corporations and in particular by Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Apple, and others mega companies that now have our data and know how to use it. Their social engineering of a good person, a good life, and a good society is what counts. This leads us to what might happen to Christians and the Church.
I am not saying that the vast majority of the people in these companies are attempting to destroy Christians or the Church, but there are ramifications for Christians and some of them will be painful.
When Solzhenitsyn was released from prison in 1974 and exiled to the United States, his parting exhortation to Soviet citizens can be summed up in the title of his article, Live not by lies! His point was that most people don’t have the power or position to stand up and defeat the then colossus of the Soviet state, but they could resist by not living the lie that was the communist narrative. They could do simple things and he suggested a few.
Will not say, write, affirm, or distribute anything that distorts the truth.
Will not go to a demonstration or participate in a collective action unless he truly believes in the cause.
Will not take part in a meeting in which the discussion is forced, and no one can speak the truth.
Will not vote for a candidate or proposal he considers to be dubious or unworthy.
Will walk out of an “event as soon as he hears the speaker utter a lie, ideological drivel, or shameless propaganda.”
Will not support journalism that “distorts or hides the underlying facts.” [3]
How a Christian interprets the above guidelines is based on everything from the understanding of scripture to one’s conscious. Yet one thing is for certain, what you read, what you buy, what you watch, what you like, and what you say on social media or via your phone or tell Siri or Alexa will be recorded, stored, and finally graded, not by a person, but by an algorithm. This isn’t personal, it is however punitive if you persist with your biblical viewpoint. The gathering of your information at this point is primarily commercial and is monetized for the profit motive of commerce. But be assured, the more moralizing these organizations engage it, your score will be kept, and it will make a difference. If you watch a Saturday morning John Wayne movie, by Saturday afternoon your social network will be trying to sell you Chaps and Spurs. I think we already have ample evidence that the prevailing and growing national narrative is moving away from the biblical narrative.
We cannot hope to resist the coming of soft totalitarianism if we don’t have our spiritual lives in order. This was the belief of Nobel laureate Aleksandar Solzhenitsyn. He believed the core of the crisis that created communism was not political but spiritual.[4] He was famous for his Harvard commencement speech in 1978 that proclaimed, “We have placed too much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life.” He went on to claim that the West had lost its will to fight, willpower in general, and moral courage in particular. His call for repentance for sin was not well-received by the secular elite. He taught a spiritual reality or kingdom that was behind the societal battles. Christians must never forget this - behind, beneath, or above all human activity are two kingdoms at war. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness led by Lucifer disguised as an angel of light. And what is Lucifer’s goal? To destroy what God loves most - his creation and his people. Satan’s goal is to oppress, kill, and destroy what is good about life. God made us free, free to chose what to say, what to believe, what to think, whom to love, whom to marry, and where to live.
We may not be able to change the opinion of the leaders at Google or Facebook, or the editors of the New York Times, but we can by being faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord by following Solzhenitsyn’s advice. Six simple actions that can be taken to protest the lies that we hear. And yes, we will be punished, we may suffer, and we may lose advantages, but we will gain inner peace. We will reap satisfactions and joy and, like the members of the early church,
“The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message. Jesus is Messiah.” - Acts 5:41 NLT
In this case, it was actually the name of Jesus that offended the Jewish Council. In our case, it might be less the actual name of Jesus in a historic Christian culture that offends, and something that cuts through the prevailing narrative. It would be more likely walking out of an important dinner or disagreeing with a person who has power over you in a company. It is the small but important moments when you take a stand. As you may recall in my previous columns or podcasts, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Not to speak is to speak, not to act is to act.” You don’t have to take to the streets, just live your life and refuse to live not by lies.
- Bill Hull, CO - FOUNDER, PRESIDENT, & CEO THE BONHOEFFER PROJECT
- Hanna Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism NY, Harcourt, 1973, Viii
- Live Not by Lies, Rod Dreher page 7
- Live Not By Lies, Rod Dreher, 2020
- Idea derived from Live Not By Lies, A Manual for Christian Dissidents, Rod Dreher 2020