Professor Michael Rainsborough: Towards Post-totalitarianism in the West: Some Warnings From the East

“Do we not stand as a kind of warning to the West, revealing to it its own latent tendencies?” So asked Czech playwright Václav Havel in 1978 in ‘The Power of the Powerless’, his epic essay on the nature of dissent in Communist Eastern Europe. Havel argued that the fate of East European countries under Communist tyranny stood as a monument to the debilitating effects of late-stage techno-bureaucratic rationalism – a system focused solely on material existence. This system, he argued, ceased to serve humanity, eroded individual dignity and coldly tore people away from their natural affiliations: their habitat, their family, their community, their nation.

Clive Bibby: Judged by Deeds Not Words

Quoting scripture isn’t something l dabble in mainly because l lay myself open to criticism as a religious bigot although l do acknowledge a personal faith that is part of who l am. I try not to impose my beliefs on others but am happy to share them.

Having said that, this article is based on one quote that l believe is appropriate in the circumstances. I must admit that l needed to research the line and just as well because it isn’t the one l thought l knew.

Anyway, it is from Mathew chapter 7, verse 20: “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

Melanie Phillips: Rationality fights back

Is the resistance to post-modern totalitarianism beginning to stir?

Might we be witnessing the beginnings of a revolt by the long-suffering centre-ground against the malign imbecilities of the age?

In America, ground-zero of identity politics, some intriguing straws in the wind are floating out from behind the entertainment and education barricades. Even in the world of apocalypse-now climate change, it’s possible to detect some slight movement towards sanity.

The Darkening Clouds of Totalitarianism

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter, we examine the Government’s radical plan to criminalise free speech and regulate political opinion, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Chris Trotter questions the Government’s implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Christchurch shooting, and our poll asks whether you support Jacinda Ardern’s plan to criminalise free speech.

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