VIEWSnThe Avenging Deity as anRational Projection of the Wounded EgonThe locus classicus of all informed discussion on tiie subjectnof the political essence of totalitarianism is the followingnpassage from Plato’s Republic:nIf you are caught committing any of these crimes on ansmall scale, you are punished and disgraced; they call itnsacrilege, kidnapping, burglar)’, theft and brigandage.nBut if, besides taking their propert)’, you turn all yourncountrymen into slaves, you will hear no more of thosenugly names; your countr}’men themselves will call younthe happiest of men and bless your name.nAnyone who has studied the histon’ of the 20th centur)’ willnaccept the truth of this observation as axiomatic. The confusionncomes from those who —despite having accepted the axiom asna matter of political truth—go on to pile up volumes of tenuousnand unconvincing conjecture about the psycholog}’ of the unfortunatennations in c[uestion.nRoll some archival footage of a Nuremberg rally, and you willnsurely hear them talk of mass hysteria. Zoom in on a giant posternof Mussolini, and their commentary’ will reverberate with wordsnlike “hyiDHosis.” Move on to Red Square in November, and asnsure as there are tanks on parade, they will prattle about the cultnof personalit}’. They accept the political axiom because theynmust, because it is incontrovertible; yet, equally, they must findnan out, a back door, a loophole at any logical cost, because if allnAndrei Navrozov is Chronicles’ European correspondent.nby Andrei Navrozovn”So spake the Fiend, and with necessity,nThe tyrant’s plea, excus’d his deviUsh deeds.”n—Milton, Paradise Lostnmen are cowards and they are men, then they are cowards; andntiiey wish to be brave. If all men are fools, they too are fools; andnthey cannot be fools, because they are screenwriters for the BBC,nprofessors at Oxford, and fellows of the Hoover Institution. If allnmen would fall over themselves to salute a ty’rant, then theynthemselves are pathetic, dishonorable clowns; and, to make anlong story short, this is simply not how they see themselves.nThey find the loophole, and with it personal absolution, bynstressing—nay, inventing, with hardly a shred of historical evidence—annirrational component of that happy compact, foreshadowednin the Republic, between the absolute oppressor andnthe absolutely oppressed. The oppressor is therefore a “maniac,”na “psychopath,” and a “monster.” The oppressed are “hypnotized,”n”mesmerized,” “robotic.” This way, tiiey tie down tona particular people, time, and place what would otherwise hangnoverhead as a universally menacing truth. “It cannot happennagain,” runs the panicky undercurrent of their defensive psychologizing.n”It will not happen here. It would not happen to us.”nArithmetic is anytining but irrational, and I commend to younthe following exercise, whose outcome is a dead certaint)’: Onndie left side of a blank page, write out the names of the peoplenin your life whom you wish well—your friends, relatives, colleagues,nwriters or artists whose work you follow with interest,npoliticians you admire and want to succeed. On the right sidenof the page, write the names of ever)’one you even mildly despise—yournformer friends who have long betrayed you, colleaguesnwho have hindered your success, unscrupulous andncorrupt politicians . . . Then, of course, there are the peoplennnJUNE 2001/13n