Hi Frank,
   Interesting material:
FM>   Bolivar thought
-> this Platonic constitution would be (grin) entirely fitting for a
-> liberated state like Bolivia!  You can imagine how long THAT lasted.
-> Bolivar was, of course, steeped in the enlightenment from which we
-> derive much of modern political thought
   Regimes of "pure reason" can indeed be murderous.  to oppose
"reason" is as intolerable as --previously--opposing God or God's
church.
-> including the murderous
-> political paranoids who drew on thought such as Marx, Comte, et al to
-> establish the REAL totalitarian regiemes of our century using the
-> "lumpenproletariat"
   Hitler's supporters *after* his early period do NOT look "lumpen"
to me!   I understand "lumpenproletariat" to refer to unemployed
riff-raff,  not workers or peasants.
-> to accomplish their desires only well-described
-> by Plato-Socrates in paradigms like the "beast that goes on the
-> rampage" when the "waking" mind is "asleep."
->
-> You may recall that the fastidious Robespierre kept his OWN person
-> well
-> away from the stench and horror of the political murder he sanctioned
-> in the interest of "progress."
   In view of this, I think we can refer to "regimes of total
contral"  RTCsm  if you have semantic problems:
   Define an RTC as existing where the state invades all aspects
of life, including private and everyday, as well as thought, speech,
publication, association, etc; where moral, social and political
uniformity is enforced by social sanctions up to and including
state-administered executions.
-> In the first place, totalitarian regiemes could not even be dreamed
-> about
-> in the ancient world.  It is strictly a 20th century phenomenon.
   I think RTCs *were envisioned, and I think Campanella
(cloudy memory) is an example.
   As far as practice, as you state above, The Terror in France,
seems to fit.  Calvin and his boys in Geneva set an RTC up rather
thoroughly, too,  burning the theologic dissenter, Servetus, at
the stake--holding his "poisonous" books!
So did Calvin's heirs, in their own little way establish an RTC; the
Massachusetts "Puritans" (early Mass. Bay  Colony).  Hence the "Blue
Laws", hanging of quakers, etc.
    Perhaps you could share a definition of totalitarian that is
specifically 20th century.....Does it have to look
like 1984, with cameras 'watching' every room, and Visa watching
every purtchase!
    Best regards, Hal.
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