Society will eventually devolve into a totalitarian regime

Rebuttal Freedom is subjective to one's viewpoint. One can think themselves to be free when they are actually not. It is true, as you have said, “. .. the drive for freedom in living-systems is part of the Laws of Nature. ” I shall explain in my argument how freedom can be redefined in the eyes of the masses. Argument What defines the enforcement of strength in individuals also defines its enforcement in the morals of societies, and that is will to power. The will to exert one's power over another individual or society of the individuals. Some systems promote will to power more than others, like the Nazi system which attempted to exert it’s specific principles over other groups of individuals which it would virtually enslave in the thirst for Lebensraum[1] for the German people. This requires that power is exerted over its own citizens. This is the very nature of a totalitarian regime, the putting of all power and strength under the control of one individual. At his trial after the Second World War, Hitler’s Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer, delivered a long speech in which, with remarkable acuteness, he described the Nazi tyranny and analyzed its methods. “Hitler’s dictatorship,” he said, “differed in one fundamental point from its predecessors in history. It was the first dictatorship in the present period of modern technical development, a dictatorship which made complete use of all technical means for the domination of its own country, Through technical devices like the radio and the loudspeaker, eighty million people were deprived of independent thought. It was thereby possible to subject them to the will of one man… Earlier dictators needed highly qualified assistants even at the lowest level--men who could think and act independently. The totalitarian system in the period of modern technical development can dispense with such menl thanks to modern methods of communication, it is possible to mechanize the lower leadership. As a result of this there has arisen the new type of the uncritical recipient of orders. ” Since then technology has advanced far beyond the point of Hitler’s day; consequently the recipients of orders are and will be far less critical than their Nazi counterparts, far more obedient to the order-giving elite. This conditioning of the “lower leadership” has already occurred in communist dictatorships to a startlingly successful degree. It has only been the failure of the order-giving elite that has caused the destruction of these societies. The Chinese and the Russians did not merely rely on the indirect effects of advancing technology; they worked directly on the psychophysical organisms of their lower leaders, subjecting minds and bodies to a system of ruthless and, from all accounts, highly effective conditioning. Many a man has been haunted by the nightmare that one day nations might be dominated by technical means. That nightmare was almost realized in Hitler’s totalitarian system. Almost, but not quite. The Nazis did not have the time and perhaps did not have the intelligence and necessary knowledge to brainwash and condition their lower leadership. This, it may be, is one of the reasons why they failed, but now the means exist and nothing is in existence to prevent their use. Introduction of a New Moral into a Preexisting Moral System Strength is the exertion of one's will to power, and it is almost impossible to calculate somethings strength as it is proceeding. How would one know the results of World War II in 1940? One could make predictions, but as one might know in this case, it was a very different situation in 1940 compared to 1945. How exactly is a moral system changed though? There are two ways in which a moral system can be changed: acceptance and strength. Acceptance is the simplest of all methods in the changing of moral systems. Acceptance occurs when an idea is introduced to a new moral system and it is acceptable to it in a way that it is easily receivable. This follows the simple process of going from introduction to acceptance. Examples of this can be seen in such situations as the abolition of slavery in the Northern states of the US prior to the civil war or the banning of harmful drugs also in the US[2]. This principle is much more simple than the process of the eventual acceptance of a moral introduced by strength. Strength works through the powers of propaganda, fear, and hatred. They are all used together for the common purpose of increasing the strength of a newly introduced moral until it is accepted. The principles of hatred and fear are so interlinked that I shall discuss them together. Hatred is caused by fear and disgust. Disgust is simply the revoltment at that which you believe is below you. This can be seen in the dislike of other races by the German populace under Nazi Reign. The introduction of this notion of German superiority was introduced by propaganda, which I shall discuss later. Fear is either the fear of defeat or the fear of pain, both of which can be seen during war. The fear of defeat is simply the fear of loss in some variety. This has inspired nationalistic attitudes, which can cause major change as the United States does with the suspension of Habeas Corpus in times of revolt or war. Fear caused by pain is a much more complicated matter psychologically. Some studies report the existence of “Stockholm Syndrome” where one can actually become attached to ones torturers, but in most cases it still appears to inspire hatred. These tools of hatred and fear are used in the next for of enacting moral change, and that is propaganda. Propaganda is the chief means of changing a moral system through strength. It uses all available technological means in order to influence the ignorant masses. People are put into large crowds, which have no purpose of their own other than that told to them, where individuals are inspired to do anything except intelligent action and realistic thought. Speakers follow the lead of the great masses in such a way that from the living emotion of the hearers the apt word which they need is suggested to them to sway the mass. Among the mass instinct is supreme. Speakers tell blacks or whites, there is no gray area to speak of if you want to influence that which can’t think. Propaganda is confined to bare necessities to be expressed in a few stereotyped formulas that make use in order to create hatred and manipulate it for its own advantage. Through the force of this great power single individuals can influence the masses to be shifted from traditional loyalties to the point where they can impose their chosen order and destroy the morals of the past. Conclusion If morality can be shifted with the strength of words how can all men be resistant to the destruction of their own freedom and how can they possess inalienable rights? People are bent to the will of that which is more powerful than them, limiting the freedoms of the individual to that which is most powerful. Even if an individual has the right to own a small group of particular views they are still subject to the the totalitarian regime that will inevitably be above them. [1]the territory that a state or nation believes is needed for its natural development, especially associated with Nazi Germany. It was specifically farmland in the Nazi case.