China s leaders see how Mikhail Gorbachev is the fry-guy at the Moscow McDonalds now. The Chinese Politburo is the last place outside American universities, certain corners of the White House, and my girlfriend s mind where anyone honestly believes they can plan a society by force. But that is what totalitarians do. Many of us forget that in the broad scheme of things totalitarianism is like the occasional rat in a can of Coca Cola, which is to say it is an extremely rare, new and ugly thing in the history of humanity. Totalitarians believe that life should work according to an idea.
Totalitarians choose the latter.
In the meantime they purge the society of anything that might be a competitor for the party s affections. The problem is that nature abhors a vacuum, and so does society. People want to believe in something larger than themselves. They want to belong to something that gives them meaning. In normal countries, people have limitless opportunities to explore spiritually satisfying lifestyles.