The first thing that a totalitarian leader does to make a perfect laboratory out of his nation (and perfect guinea pigs out of his subjects) is to seal off the nation from the outside world, not only to prevent outside variables that might compromise his experimentation from coming in but also to prevent inside variables essential for the success of his experimentation from escaping out. It is not surprising then that the most crucial question that a totalitarian leader or party asks is: how do I keep out those variables that potentially infringe on my independence to experiment as I simultaneously keep in those variables essential to the success of my experiment? The independence mentioned here is that of the leaders (or the partys) unfettered independence to do whatever he wants to do within the confines of his laboratory (the nation) to bring about the kind of results he wants to achieve often, a utopian society made in his or the partys own image. But since no such satisfactory result is ever achieved, the experimentation ends up being all about weeding out interfering variables, a process that ends only with the demise of the totalitarian system itself.
The control that a totalitarian leader seeks, unlike that of a scientist, is to be met at the two ends of the experimentation process: not only does he aim for total control of the setting wherein his experimentations are to be conducted, but the results that he is aiming at are also solely for purposes of control. The circularity of this totalitarian project is clear: the party or the leader controls the environment in order to produce controllable subjects. This is a case where the experiment itself keeps eating the very ground on which it is stands. That is to say, the setting of the experiment eventually becomes part of the experiment, a process which would have led into infinite regress had there not been national borders that physically confine the laboratory setting. That is why totalitarian systems, as in the case of all forms of fundamentalism, inherently abhor international borders; they cannot stand the contrast brought to perpetual presence by factors out of their control from the outside hence the necessity they see in sealing off the nation.
When revolutions taken in the name of the masses degenerate, first, the independence of the people gets devalued into that of the partys/fronts; and, last, when the totalitarian system is fully entrenched, it atrophies into that of the leaders. Such has been the fate of the Eritrean revolution, where the concept of independence has taken this downward spiral to eventually mean the unfettered independence of the Dear and Beloved Leader to do whatever experimentations he wants to undertake in order to arrive at the exact formula that would finally work miracles for Eritrea.
Totalitarian experimentations, which in the end invariably whittle down to weeding out interfering variables, come in the forms of revolutions, endless campaigns, land expropriation, nationalization, food products confiscation, material deprivation, collectivization, monopolization, dislodgements, resettlements, indoctrination, reeducation, criticism and self-criticism, cleansings, reshufflings, purges, counter-purges, arrests, imprisonments, exile, forced labor, eliminations, disappearances, mass murders, genocides, wars, etc. a hollowing out process of the whole nation that goes on continuously until the regimes last days of total collapse arrive. All the catastrophes that have happened to Eritrea the wars, mass exodus, national service, slave labor, killings and massacres, prisons and concentration camps, dysfunctional education system, monopolization, land expropriation, food supply control, mass starvation, economic meltdown, etc are variations of this experimentation. This entire domestic terrorism can thus be explained either as a cause or effect of the sealing off process of the nation conducted by the Isaias regime a necessary condition for any experimentation to take place.
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Eritrea: Isaias & Roma´s Wedding, tolo biri, Stockholm, Swedenby anbesa23593,521 views
I have cried until the tears no longer come; my heart is broken. My spirit is poured out in agony as I see the desperate plight of my people. Little children and tiny babies are fainting and dying in the streets.
Lamentations 2:11
Abenezer2008 1 year ago
I cried and cried watching this and seeing the pictures of so many I had loved and admired during the struggle.
karlmarx1754 1 year ago