there were 143 registered private publishing houses and 35nregistered periodicals, most of them privately owned),nunderstands full well that only a military deterrent in thenhands of nations and individuals is an obstacle to globalnexpansion. The rest is more or less a fiction, and consequentlynsomething to which the attention of democraciesnThat even under totalitarian controlnindividuals are likely to misperceive thenregime’s tactical concessions to them forntheir own impact upon the regime’s strategynis not surprising, since the samenmisperceptions dominate the pages of thenWest’s ‘quality newspapers.’nmust be drawn to divert it from the one and only real issue.nSo Jill may mention to Jack, in passing, her family history ofnstomach trouble, or the hole in her pocket, or even herngenerally gullible disposition.nThe idea that the Soviet oligarchs have “unleashed” anprocess that they are or will be “unable to control” is annintellectual drama scripted at the Lubyanka. The resiliencenof the West’s reluctance to see it for what it is can benmeasured by the recent revelations from “former Sovietncaptive nations” where “popular revolutions” have takennplace: although it is gradually being admitted that these hadnbeen “engineered by the secret police” from Moscow, nonWestern observer has questioned the legitimacy of the statusnquo or called into question the eariier interpretations of thenstatus quo ante. Thus the Times reported recently that,nwhile the “revolutionary” events in Narodni Street innPrague (“561 casualties and one faked death”) had beennsimulated on orders from the KGB deputy chairman.nGeneral Grushko, the inevitable conclusion was that “Mr.nHavel and the Civic Forum were swept into government bynimmense public enthusiasm, the beneficiaries of an unlikelynplot by their worst enemies.” But why are Mr. Havel and thenCivic Forum the Soviet oligarchy’s “worst enemies,” anynmore than their counterparts in Romania or Hungary are?nFor the one and only question for the Soviet leadership is:ncan Mr. Havel, or his counterparts in Romania andnHungary, do anything to develop their nations’ militaryncapability to deter Soviet domination? Plainly, at a timenwhen West Germany has proposed to pay for the stationingnof Soviet troops on the “unified” nation’s soil, the answer isnno. And without deterrence there can be nothing that thenSoviet oligarchy will be “unable to control.”nA nobleman of old was known by his coat of arms. This,nin a pre-totalitarian age, represented the eternal truth thatnhonor is the surname of sovereignty. In our totalitarian age,nthe importance of the individual’s privilege to bear arms as ansafeguard of his freedom has diminished, although thenattention paid by the Soviet leadership to the possession ofnhunting guns in the “rebel republics” is evidence enoughn20/CHRONICLESnnnthat the significance of this privilege, even today, is notnentirely symbolic. At the national level, however, thatnprivilege is the very substance of independence.nNo “reform,” no “sign of democratization,” no “freedom”nis too dangerous or too costly for the Soviet leadershipnto introduce, display, or grant for the sake of disarmament.nNationalist tensions? Here you are. Pornography? Just likenSoho. Elections? We are learning. Credit cards, Mc­nDonald’s, environmental activism, rock music, Christianity?nSay the word. Vietnam? Afghanistan? A free press? Ofncourse.nIt is a simulacrum difficult to expose. For instance, nonreport in the new, “free press” in Russia has ever suggestednthat the Soviet victory in Afghanistan has been the result ofnone of the most sophisticated, innovative, and efficientnoperations in the history of modern warfare. But has anynreport in the good old free press here ever suggested this?nOfficially, the Soviet Army calls it a withdrawal. The “newnpress” in Russia calls it a senseless bloodbath. The West callsnit a military fiasco. Everyone is pleased, except perhaps thenmujahadeen.nThe term “Finlandization” was once a nasty. Gold Warnword. It was something that would happen to Jack unless henwatched out: count your apples. Jack. Now the specter ofnFinlandization has become a lure, as the scarecrow of oldnhas been dressed up in the finery of a window mannequin.nJack is expected to look at Finland, or a new Finland like thenfuture Germany, and be reassured. Don’t bother countingnthe apples, Jack. For however useful it is to simulaten”Western” virtues and vices on Soviet territory, it is morenuseful still to simulate them where they already exist.nIt is only when the process of Finlandization is irreversible,nand Jack has no apples left, that the stark realities of lostnsovereignty will come to the fore. The remaining, last applenwill make all the difference as the totalitarian oligarchyncontracts into a totalitarian dictatorship: Hitler’s and Stalin’sndream of an empire spanning all of Eurasia, multiplying thenWestern industrial base by Soviet resources, will come true.nIt will be a nightmare.nEven here dumb Jack has something to say, especially ifnhe read history at Oxford. Did not Greece and Rome fall inntheir day, he will muse, and yet the barbarian victors came tonbe civilized by the vanquished?nI very much doubt that Mr. Shaw, faced with thenprospect of ruinous Labour taxation, would muse aboutnsuch things. The hundred-year-old cliche of a paradox is,npractically speaking, yet another damnable fiction.nTotalitarianism is a uniquely modern and, as I havenalready said, largely unstudied phenomenon. It is madenuniquely modern by the power of science and technologynharnessed by an oligarchy skilled in its use. By “science” Inmean not only nuclear physics, but sociology and psychology.nBy “technology” I mean not only the production ofntanks, but the development of the means of surveillance.nThe individual’s relationship to that power, seen as a kindnof ratio, is infinitesimally insignificant, and this excludes allnpossibilities of secret organization, clandestine communication,nand meaningful dissent. Every expression of discontent,nno matter how “threatening,” can take place only tonthe extent it is permitted to take place in accordance with thenregime’s strategic aims. That even under totalitarian controln