So I’ve been racking my brain trying to explain the role of the secret police in society.
My basic analysis of the situation I outlined on the podcast, but here it is again.
Mass Democracy means that the opinions of the masses matter because their votes matter
Usually the population polices itself and clamps down on outliers and eccentrics out of a sense of conformity
But if the elite is openly hostile to the general population, it can’t rely on the Joneses and other busybodies policing everybody
Therefore, it is necessary to create a secret police force to prevent any radicals gaining a following with their ideas and their actions
The secret police, because they are outnumbered, have to rely on terror tactics
The secret police act as ideological enforcers who snuff out any radicals who want to challenge the reigning political dogma/move the Overton Window to the right i.e., towards freedom and Authoritarianism (synonym terms)
Over time, in a classic case of the tail wagging the dog, the secret police begins taking over more and more aspects of society, even overtaking institutions that it was supposed to be protecting
More and more though, I’ve come to realize that the role of the secret police is really just another archetypical form that we have seen before in societies that preceded ours. I thought we were dealing with a new phenomenon, but once again, I was forced to acknowledge that there is nothing new under the sun in this world.
So without further ado, my conclusion: the secret police are simply the faith militant in another guise.
The only thing that has changed since the days of the Church harassing everyone and modern times was the replacement of religion for political ideology. And so, just as there were enforcers of religious dogma then, there are enforcers of political sacred cows now.
A breakthrough!
Now, I think I understand what is going on.
I will say this though: at least in the West, we know what the political dogma is. Just off the top of my head:
White people are bad
Jews are sacrosanct
Militant Liberalism is the only legitimate form of government anywhere in the world
There’s probably more to it, but that’s basically the catechism of the Western death cult in a nutshell. And the dark voodoo priests are on the hunt for heretics who can gain a following and send the whole system tumbling, as they always are.
But in Russia, where there is no set reigning political ideology that anyone can understand, things are far more messy. Are nationalists calling for more Russian nationalism enemies? Maybe (we’ll talk about that more later). Are Liberals calling for the end of the war in Ukraine enemies? Probably. But are Sovoks calling for an end to the war because of socialist solidarity with the Ukrainian proletariat enemies? Eh, that’s a tough one. Best to just scribble something in the notebook and keep an eye on them for now.
The people who are calling for a new political ideology for Russia in Russia are basically asking to know what the rules of the game are. It become much easier to follow the rules and avoid a visit from the secret police when you know what the rules are.
Well, fine. We can do that, I suppose. Lavrov should be releasing the Russian mission statement any day now.
But, just in case he doesn’t, maybe we should consider why we even need a political faith to begin with? Why do we need to believe that government monopolies (Communism) are superior to private monopolies (Capitalism)? Does that really help us peasants live better, more fulfilling lives? And do we really need to believe in certain historical events or can we just move past them and focus on the future and on achieving total victory at any cost?
Dogmas are the death of free-thinking whether they take the guise of religion or political ideology. Free-thinking is necessary for truth-seeking. Truth-seeking leads to strength because all strength derives from finding, understanding and then wielding truth. In other words, dogma only leads to entropy and decay. A useful stop-gap measure, to be sure, but just look at what happened to the Stasi. Or to the Catholic Church.
And what’s worse, without even a clear political or religious dogma to enforce, the secret ideological police loses its raison d’etre and becomes little more than a marauding band of criminals.
Hm.
That’s all I have for now. But hopefully it’s enough to generate a discussion.
As things stand now, we cannot do anything while there is a powerful secret police operating with near impunity and using terror tactics on a prostrate and hapless populace. No political populist movement utilizing political marches, election campaigns and informational outreach efforts will yield any results until they factor in this unenviable aspect of dystopian reality that we find ourselves in.
Don’t believe me? Look at what happened to MAGA. To Occupy Wall St. To the Trucker Convoy. To the Yellow Vests. They were all subverted and brutally shut down. Do you really think that they just needed to tweak their optics, their ideology, their rhetoric to achieve their goals? C’mon, man. Wake up.
So yeah, back to the drawing table, boys. We gotta brew up some coffee, order some takeout and start figuring this out.
I wonder how far back it goes? What was the equivalent of the secret police in Athens?
The other question is: how were these bastards dealt with by dissident movements that actually succeeded? I'm thinking a large part of it is just popular awareness that they exist and they're awful. General social disgust goes a long way. Then again we've known the FBI goes after dissidents since the 70s and they're still at it, so that can't be the whole enchilada.
Don't know if you'll see this, but I'm enjoying your writing immensely. I especially like the idea that thought can be freest in authoritarian societies because what people think doesn't matter so much. But I'd like to inject something into your analysis, the role of propaganda. It's role is similar to the secret police, except it works on an explicitly psychological level, which can be more secret than the secret police. You raise very interesting ways of looking at things.