4- george mason university（4 -乔治梅森大学）.doc

The Totalitarian Threat Bryan Caplan Department of Economics and Center for Study of Public Choice George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030 bcaplan@ 703-993-2324 January, 2006 For discussion and useful suggestions I would like to thank Tyler Cowen, Robin Hanson, Alex Tabarrok, Dan Houser, Don Boudreaux, Ilia Rainer, Milan ?irkovi?, and Nick Bostrom. Geoffrey Lea provided excellent research assistance. The standard disclaimer applies. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever. George Orwell, 1984 (1983: 220) 1. Totalitarianism: What Happened and Why It (Mostly) Ended During the twentieth century, many nations – including Russia, Germany, and China - lived under extraordinarily brutal and oppressive governments. Over one hundred million civilians died at the hands of these governments, but only a small fraction of their brutality and oppression was necessary to retain power. The main function of the brutality and oppression, rather, was to radically change human behavior, to transform normal human beings with their selfish concerns into willing servants of their rulers. The goals and methods of these governments were so extreme that they were often described – by friend and foe alike – as total or totalitarian. (Gregor 2000) The connection between totalitarian goals and totalitarian methods is straightforward. People do not want to radically change their behavior. To make them change anyway requires credible threats of harsh punishment – and the main way to make such threats credible is to carry them out on a massive scale. Furthermore, even if people believe your threats, some will resist anyway or seem likely to foment resistance later on. Indeed, some are simply unable to change. An aristocrat cannot choose to have proletarian origins, or a Jew to be an Aryan. To handle these recalcitrant problems requires special prisons to isolate dangerous elements, or