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Why Totalitarian States Survive Nowadays
What should be done to block the road
to social and economic hell
Jaroslav Romanchuk (Belarus)
(text of Vilnius speech)
After the breakup of the Soviet Union millions of people around the world cried with joy:
Communism is dead! Socialism is dead!". At the same time many university professors and academicians, politicians and political
scientists stated somehow less audibly, "Long live socialism! Long live social democracy!" They did not want to start an open
struggle with the people, who after more than 70 years of struggle, finally broke free. They behaved like Ellsworth Toohee a
well-known villain from Ayn Rand's novel "The Fountainhead". They were cunning enough not to stick their necks out. They were
designing a new leash that the people will voluntarily put their neck into and give them (the masters of their souls) the end of
the rope to manage and pull when necessary.
Totalitarianism has never been dead in
theory and is still alive in practice
Is the world safer today than it was let's say 30 — 40 years ago? There is no accurate measure
to answer this question. Philosophical and ideological sources for new threats and dangers are always in good supply.
- Islamic fundamentalism and religious extremism,
- hatred of countries that are based on values of enlightenment, respect
fundamental rights and freedoms of a human being,
- intolerance of people who hold different opinions on politics, economic development and social security;
- ideas of collectivist universal equality that meant that all people should earn alike, look alike, dress alike — i. e. just
be human robots. Free trade has failed to become a dear child of humanity. Protectionism and middle-ages mercantilism still dominate
in international trade.
Of course many countries in the region are much freer now than they were 20 years ago.
Hard work, dedication and courage of Lithuanian, Polish, Czech Russian and many other peoples led to collapse of the most bloody,
cruel and anti-human system in the world. We should hail the people who broke the backbone of the deadly communist, socialist
system in their countries. They are heroes of today, leaders of fight against totalitarianism of tomorrow. At the same time it
would be a gross overestimation to call them consistent supporters of capitalism and philosophy that supports this political
social economic system. Can we call Gorbachev or Yeltsinn, Walensa or Nemet, Havel or Nazarbayev champions of capitalism? By no
means. Very few government ministers and decision makers in post-socialist countries were aware of the capitalist alternative.
The third way, the so-called "best of both worlds" was the dominant thing they had in mind. It was up to ex-soviet style nomenclature
to decide what the balance between the two systems should be. The totalitarian state was officially declared dead to be able to
quickly regroup resources for further battles.
There are still many countries in the world that are still oppressed. Their citizens can not
enjoy basic freedoms and rights: freedom of expression, right to life, freedom of religion or association. North Korea, Iran and
Libya, Saudi Arabia and Iran, China and Myanmar, Belarus and Turkmenistan — these are sad evidence that the totalitarian state is still
alive, that it is preparing to fight back and attack. Moreover there are still many so-called soft totalitarian states or
authoritarian states: Governments of these countries pretend to be free and democratic but these governments are
like wolves in sheep's clothing. People are murdered or imprisoned for their political or religious views. People can not teach or
study what they choose. People can not travel freely or get rid of governments and self-appointed rulers. They call
it democracy but we know of many cases of elections without voters. Authoritarian rulers do not care how people vote.
Controlling the process of elections and all spheres of human life they believe that they are vox populi and vox dei all in one.
There are somewhat milder forms of oppression widely practiced in countries on all continents. People are deprived of
their natural rights and their freedom of choice and opportunities are restricted by taxes, regulations, state monopolies, trade
restrictions and prohibition of certain types of goods and service exchanges. These countries are so numerous that it is
no use enumerating them here.
The danger of a comeback of totalitarianism is also seen in numerous radical groups and organizations
(like Al Kaida, Hamas, IRA). They do not belong to any state. They do not act in one area. They make the best use of fruits of
globalization and civilization and attack people all over the world. Do they fight for liberty, prosperity and pursuit of happiness?
No they fight to force countries and all the world to live according to their own pattern. They want us to live according to books
written centuries ago. We want to be alive and they want us to be dead. There is no way to reconcile these points of view. Hence
we must protect ourselves from these dangers. Freedom is never one once and for all. Every generation starts its own fight based
on successes or failures of their predecessors. Shapes and sizes of oppression change all the time. Looters and witch doctors of
today come out with numerous modern tools to reinstall or using a modern word to "reload" totalitarianism. The fight for freedom
is not over. It will never be over. That is why there is a growing need for people in all countries to unite their forces and
to coordinate their activities in our common struggle against modern totalitarianism.
Semantic revolution as popular way
of saving totalitarianism
The only long-lasting social economic revolution is the one based on a revolution of ideology.
If this does not occur there is always a chance for a comeback of totalitarianism. In the very beginning of the 90s it was not
clear what the fate of ideological struggle would be. Now after about 14 years it is evident that ideological revolution that must
ensure stability and sustainability of capitalism in politics and economy, individualism and rational egoism in ethics, rationality
in epistemology, objective reality in metaphysics is just in the cradle. Collectivist wolves in sheep's clothing's that were
responsible for ideology assisted by "witch doctors" from the West laid the foundation of slightly modified ideology of new
millennium collectivism. They sold it to people using the adjectives "modern", "progressive", "socially oriented", "humanitarian",
"non-discriminatory", "just".
They did not come up with new tactics and tricks. They realized that full-fledged ideological
revolution requires much time, effort, financial and human resources. As their historical predecessors they began with semantic
revolution. Playing and manipulating words and labels was the easiest and historically tested way to achieve quick results and to
confuse people who were not exposed to competition of ideas. Old "gods" were declared dead as it was difficult to defend and to
justify horrible crimes against humanity performed by communists. Few politicians managed to form a stable similarity between
communists and fascists. Witch doctors stopped using the words "communism", "socialism", "centrally planned economy",
"collectivism". They added some adjectives to make them sound progressive and dynamic. Studying Marxism was old-fashioned but
teaching "Analytical Marxism" was meant to be somehow different. Building centrally planned economy was out of the question but
constructing socially oriented market economy was in vogue.
But old terms were not enough. That is why the witch doctors of the new collectivism from
post-Soviet countries came out with new labels. They did not have to invent them themselves. There are plenty of organizations and
producers of intellectual products in the world that generate such words (for example UN, IMF, World Bank, OECD, Greenpeace,
defenders of rights of animals, plants, bugs etc). I want to make a point that they generate just labels and words to dress old
collectivism and socialism into new clothes. Everybody knows these new labels: "sustainable development", "responsible corporate
behavior", "environmentally conscious policy", "intergenerational solidarity", "international cooperation" and of course
"anti-globalization aimed at preserving national identity, cultural diversity and universal equality. The list of human rights
and freedoms seems to be growing faster than GDP of the USA or China. Few people remember what these notions meant originally.
By confusing their meaning the witch doctors of the new millennium have succeeded in achieving important goals. Firstly they
expanded the list of generally accepted and well-received words and labels that could be used to justify the presence of the
omnipotent state in the most important spheres of social and economic life. Secondly, they diverted the public's attention away from
real culprits of crimes and social economic experiments on the post-soviet area in which people were used just as guinea pigs.
Laying foundation for comeback
of totalitarianism
Totalitarianism, especially in Europe, became much milder. The state and the government
did not have the resources to exercise control over everybody and everything. Massive amount of evidence and brutal
reality with permanent deficits opened eyes of people who wanted changes. Statists of all breeds realized that
the brute physical force of former Soviet-style communism could not be applied. They had to adjust quickly the new reality. They
realized that the old system was over. They could not keep it so they decided to head the process of transition. And they
successfully did that.
- The omnipotent overzealous state has survived. There is not a single state in Central and eastern Europe that
redistributes less than 40% of GDP through the state. Governments still maintain monopolies over many key sectors of the economy.
Education, and the information sectors are heavily regulated and controlled. National bureaucracies are still powerful and
difficult to control. The military component of the state (force structures) kept the right to intervene into private
affairs of citizens though the degree is definitely not Orwellian.
- Old ideologists in most cases managed to keep their positions to run education and ideology. The teachers and professors
who taught political economy of communism and socialism became experts in market economy almost overnight. Those who
promoted scientific atheism suddenly discovered their new mission to hail the Bible and the word of God. Academicians
and historians who justified or silenced atrocities of communism were called upon to explain to people and student the
meaning of human rights and freedoms, democracy, rule of law. Translating economics textbooks into Russian, Polish,
Lithuanian or Hungarian is definitely not enough to understand capitalism. University elites failed to introduce courses
or open departments of Austrian economics, thephilosophy of libertarianism, literature of Ayn Rand, etc. Instead of creating
a pluralism of opinions, Marxist-based education systems were replaced by welfare state based theories (development
economics, environmental economics etc.).
- Resources of big state or newly privatized business that closely cooperated with the state were readily available.
Communist bosses and party apparatchiks, KGB and police officers who mastered managerial skills by ruling people with
an iron fist became prosperous businessmen. They had access to the necessary networks to stifle competition and to
prevent private sector of natural development. Of course they are willing to support the state that can be used as a
powerful tool to manage the market.
- Liberated people were intoxicated by unprecedented
freedoms and abundance of consumer goods. They were beginning to realize the meaning of the expression "to make money".
Thinking short-term they rationally ignored the investment of time, money and resources into ideology. They did not
reject the notion of "serving the state". Note that people who work for the government are still called "public servants".
- The West failed to have Nuremberg-like court proceedings against communist and socialist ideology and communist crimes
against humanity. Western ideologists were willing to give new states their own version of modern society: welfare state,
third way, socially oriented market economy — you name it. Anything but comprehensible capitalism was welcome. Central
and Eastern Europe was a huge promising new market for their ideas. They did not have to go back to universities and
libraries to understand why their teachings were rejected by the people of Soviet Union dominated countries. It was
convenient to believe that it was the people who failed to carry out the noble ideas of socialism that the theory is still
beyond suspicion. Just new methods based on econometrics and computer modeling must be applied. To their relief money from
IMF, UN. World Bank and hundred of other NGOs to build new institutions and to teach new aboriginals what market is about
was readily available. Thus foundations for possible comeback of totalitarian state were laid down.
Intellectual roots of totalitarianism
Builders and supporters of the totalitarian state never admitted that full control over
people's lives and property was their ultimate goal. They always declared attractive politically correct, appealing to
the masses slogans and policy goals. It is not in the declared goals and tasks that lay the difference between totalitarian
and free democratic states. It is in concrete policies applied, in how fast and consistent a man is given back his natural
rights to use all his resources and life, how freely he can make interpersonal exchanges and take responsibility for the
outcome of his own choices. As L. Mises, M. Rothbard, H. Hazlitt, S. Ikeda and many other outstanding thinkers pointed out
the difference between socialism and welfare state is not in substance but in degree. It is not a matter of principle but
a question of compromise among various intellectual and business groups. That is why when Soviet Union and the socialist
system in Central European countries collapsed intellectual bases of totalitarianism were not rooted out. There were too few
skilled lumbermen, too little money to do it and too many rich and influential opponents of this. If you look through UN
documents and goals of its numerous organizations, if you analyze the activities of IMF and World Bank in different
countries for the last 50 years, if you fathom what European Union, OECD and other organizations are really up to in
practice you will see that intellectual roots for overpowering state are still there. Rich citizens and countries, big
businesses with faint resistance accepted the sense of guilt for all horrors of the modern world: poverty, pollution,
injustice, crimes, AIDS etc. Do many people in countries of the Central Europe know that Th. Roosevelt made attempts to
socialize America? Few as most people and politicians believe that New deal was a big success of the state. The conviction
that Great Depression was the ultimate failure of capitalism and laissez faire attitude is rarely questioned in Europe. On
the other hand Marshall Plan that was carried out by The USA to help countries of the Western Europe to rebuild their
economies is seen as a big success of the government and an evidence of his ability to get a country out of the crisis.
It is even more difficult for people in transitional countries to understand why American
professors and politicians call their most outstanding industrialists "robber barons". How can you praise robbers? How can you
sympathize with barons? Can we believe in morality of the system that was built by these robber barons?
Six Dreadful Institutions: Socialism by default
There is another spin to this enigma. If champions of capitalism — the USA could not avoid
having these types of businessmen why should be resist home made oligarchs, so called "new Russians", "new Lithuanians,
Belarusian or Poles? Protagonists of the third way and new forms of totalitarianism did their best to convince the public that
this stage of social development is inevitable, that people should yield to demands of oligarchs and empower the state that knows
how to ensure smooth gradual transition to another hand made paradise. By saying "hand" the meant their own hands — not choices
of each individual. The public thought that that was what they really needed. No wonder they were taught by their teachers at
schools and professors at universities, by journalists and analysts that capitalism is immoral, that it must be regulated for
the sake of "national security", "national interests" or any other vague across-the-board. In transitional countries and I think
it is true for Western countries a person acquires collectivist ideas and becomes a random socialist by default due to nature
formal and informal institutions around him:
- family (few lucky ones have parents who question "virtues" of the theory of socialism and welfare state),
- primary and high school (books that he reads and curriculum that he had to go through),
- church which attacks individualism, capitalism and appeals to the state and addresses to a person's sense of guilt;
- entertainment industry (movies he watches, music and movie stars he admires, "fashionable" books that he reads;
- media and especially television (almost universally anti-capitalistic source of information).
- universities and post-graduate education (there is not a single university in Europe and in transitional countries based on
Austrian school of economics, libertarian philosophy or that train professional ideological defenders of capitalism). Here I do
not mention formal structures of the state as usually they do not deal directly with ordinary people.
If a person is not exposed to libertarian ideas, philosophy of objectivism presented in a simple
attractive form, if he is not around sympathetic , likable and influential people who tell his about these ideas he can hardly
resist the dreadful impact of the mentioned above institutions. He does not dare ask "why" and question the authority of these
commonly respected institutions that seem to be with mankind forever. That is why an average person does not have natural
resistance to people who make attempts to restore totalitarian state under attractive slogans. That is why forces of totalitarianism
might suffer temporary setback but there are always people, institutions and resources to bring it back to life. After a person
has his ideals and ideas formed and well set he encounters almost universal approval from abroad. He sees that representatives
of international organizations speak the same language, produce similar ideas and suggest visible presence of the government to
correct "inborn defects" of capitalism also knows as externalities. Few international experts and politicians warn policy makers
in transitional economies about dangers of government failures, state intervention and empowered bureaucrats. Few western experts
realize the dangers of mechanical transfer of the welfare state model to a country that has just got rid of communism or socialism.
Periodic crises and recessions, high unemployment and inflation, wage arrears and contract obligations.
Why Belarus Got Stuck With
An Authoritarian State
Belarus is a unique case in many respects. Many experts believed that it was one of the most
Soviet republics of the Soviet Union. It was the most consistent in implementing ideas of socialism. Belarus had more diligent,
disciplined and responsible apparatchiks per capita than any other country. The Soviets took a great care to destroy its
intellectual elites and did their best to substitute them with strong institutes for continuous indoctrination. The two biggest
totalitarian states of the XXth century in Europe destroyed intelligentsia who were bearers of national culture, the language and
businessmen and landowners who formed in economic foundation. The Soviet Union worked out instruments to suck the most talented
and ambitious young persons from republics and sent them to Moscow to work in strictly controlled and socially highly prestigious
places. Those who disagreed were either sent to clinics for mentally ill persons or made to leave the country. Another common
escape from dreadful reality was drowning your ambitions and sorrows in alcohol. Many others chose the orderly all-absorbing
peaceful game of chess. That must be the reason the Soviet Union had so many chess champions. The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist
Republic had one of the best party schools and indoctrination institutions in the country.
There is an important economic component of the history of Belarusian totalitarianism. Byelorussia
was the assembly line of the Soviet Union. The Communist party industrialized the country and built the plants that were designed
to supply tractors, trucks, engines, TV sets and fridges, clothes and carpets to all USSR and even socialist camp countries. That
was the arbitrary decision of central planners — not the natural production order caused by the division of labor. That made
many Belarusians beneficiaries of this kind of economic redistribution. They had one of the highest standards of living in the
USSR. Many people were duped to believe that it was socialism, the totalitarian state that ensured these high standards of
living. Of course this standard was relative. The Iron Curtain helped much to sustain it for a long time. Many soviet citizens
pitied poor black Americans and Asians and Europeans who were oppressed by greedy blood sucking exploiting businessmen. Total
control over all spheres of life, skilful propaganda helped to keep these images in the minds of gullible, suppressed and
individuals who had some temporary relief in sports, dachas, drinking and watching Soviet TV.
It was like a bolt for most Belarusian and elite groups that the BSSR got independence
and turned into the from the blue Republic of Belarus. There was no bloodshed, no TV center or shipyard tragedies, no
consistent program of market reforms, no government of reformers. Belarusian communists were so confused and baffled that
they passed one of the best laws on the national language, restored national symbols and were almost ready to head to Europe.
They were such lousy managers that they lost the fight to inflation that reached over 2000% a year. People felt
tremendously insecure and they thought that that was what capitalism was about. They wanted order, regulated gradual
reforms, restoration of ties of Russia and punishment fro criminals and corrupt bureaucrats. There appeared one man, ex
propaganda machine clerk who promised everybody everything. A few influential Russian groups who were afraid that Belarus
might turn its back on Russia invested in him. So as a result of the first more or less democratic elections Belarus got
its first president. The dream of the person with deeply ingrained Soviet values and mindset, with no scruples and
understanding of market economy came true. Belarus did not even have enough time to make a U-turn to welfare state when
it was forced to move back to the USSR, to the authoritarian state. Nomenclature was happy to regain the power to regulate
economy and political life. State-roofed entrepreneurs were pleased to finally get rid of cut-throat competition and start
building their private fortunes. The president began to implement his plan to restore greater Soviet Union. He was readily
assisted by many powerful groups in Russia, businessmen with highly dubious reputations in western countries. Grey economy
and black market actors were also helpful. As there was hardly any intellectual resistance on the academic university or
civil society level the road back to serfdom began. Values, anticipations and interest of many united and effectively
networking groups in Belarus and Russia were common. They quickly restored monopoly in the information sphere. Concentration
of decision making power in Belarus reached unprecedented even according to soviet standards degree. Puppet structures
of the state and civil society were restored: appointed parliament and regional executive power bosses, obedient trade
unions, fully subsidized youth organization, powerless and flabby Soviets or local councils and even political parties.
Control structures with unprecedented powers were set up to ensure sustainability of the system. Everything was done to
literally follow the immortal John Lennon's song "Power to the people". Elections and referenda were held and it no longer
mattered what people thought. Since 1994 all elections have been orchestrated and fudged. There are institutions in Belarus
with familiar labels "parliament", "local council", "court', "government". In fact these are all substructures of one
powerful Administration of President. It drafts laws, passes and executes them. It imposes norms and defines what just
distribution of goods, fair competition, and equal conditions are.
Two Basic Scenarios For Belarus
Thus we are witnessing one of the last stages of the authoritarian state. It will evolve into an totalitarian state
(monopoly on foreign trade and travel, prohibition of private ownership of mass media, ban on activities of political
parties and non-affiliated with the government NGO, imprisonment of political and social activists who hold different
views on national interests, civil society and social economic development. This scenario will become real and durable only
under one condition: financial, resource and information support of Russia. When the regime gets about 2 bln. USD subsidies
a year (general government budget is about $3,1 bln.) you can afford experimenting with central planning for a while. The
other option is stagnation of the Belarusian regime, deterioration of the social economic situation, weakening of the
hierarchy of power structure, social instability and decline of standard of living and finally — regime change which might
take many forms. This scenario is possible if the following conditions are met:
- Russia reconsiders its policy towards Belarus and will not recognize results of any referendum in Belarus that will allow
the incumbent president to run for the third (and according to the Constitution of 1994) for the fourth time;
- Europe (EU, PACE, OSCE, national governments and NGOs) will finally start coordination their activities towards democratization
of Belarus and bringing meaningful changes in this country;
- all forces than do not support the government and want changes and reforms will coordinate their efforts and speak as one voice
both inside and outside the country. This is quite a tricky thing as the authorities and Belarusian intelligence do their best to
create pseudo-opposition, to make political parties and NGOs quarrel with one another;
- forces, countries and institutions that are interested in bringing Belarus back to normality will launch a meaningful
information campaign both inside and outside the country to tell people of Europe and to Belarusians in the first place the
truth about the regime and about the alternative scenarios of political, social economic development.
Sources Sustaining The Totalitarian State
So there are a few major political, ideological, economic and institutional reasons why the
totalitarian state in Belarus in its present form has survived:
- relatively good starting conditions and state of Belarusian economy (machine building, petrochemical plants, forestry,
fertilizers and chemical goods) and steady demand for Belarusian goods of the Russian market;
- consistent political, ideological and financial support of Russia;
- semantic revisionism of catchy phrases and words that were used by the Belarusian new Soviets to fool the people — i. e.
skillful propaganda campaign aimed at socialized collectivism minded population, at the same time there was not a single unifying
national idea and weak national identity;
- lack of national well trained well functioning bureaucracy than would prevent continuous gross violation of law;
- lack of national business that would be interested in sustainable development of its country and having competitive national
legislation;
- weakness of Belarusian intellectual elites that were dominant in the 1990-ies;
- lack of experience and knowledge of political parties and undeveloped civil society structures; 8) chaotic information market
and its further monopolization by the state;
- international recognition (de facto) of the president and his actions and lack of coordination of international organizations
and national governments in dealing with new forms of authoritarian and totalitarian states. Such comeback of the totalitarian
state did not happen in other socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union because they did not have
this unique combination of so many factors that opened the road to new forms of serfdom.
In fact a totalitarian state can become reality in any country if pro-totalitarian collectivist
forces have:
- money,
- fanatically thirsty for power individual (or individuals) and aggressive minority that might provide street support,
- access of mass media, 3) infrastructure to run a campaign and later to run a country;
- dominant Marxist or other collectivist ideology among intellectual elites,
- poor quality of government administration (corruption, inefficiencies in social security sphere etc.) and dependent judiciary
system,
- possibility of international recognition after taking power at least by one big influential country;
- politically and economically illiterate and aging population and indifferent youth;
- poorly developed media market and structures of the civil society.
10 Steps Toward A Free Society — And How To Prevent The Totalitarian State From Surviving
Social economic model, political institutions and functioning market economy are
unintended consequences of billions of choices that individuals make every moment for dozens if not hundreds of years. One
can not instantaneously change the whole system that exists in a country. In a mature society probability of radical
changes is much lower than in a country like Belarus too many people, institutions and power groups are interested in status
quo. So we must concentrate on human mind if we want to gain meaningful changes and reduce chances of totalitarian state
comeback to minimum. It should be noted that none of the reforms are irreversible. Each generation must build up on
intellectual and ideological victories of its predecessors. I can describe a few important features of a country in
which restoration of totalitarianism is the least likely. Here they are: there are fierce battles in the parliament over
the size of the general budget — 10 or 11% of GDP at existing 15% constitutional limit of 15% all government expenditures
to GDP. Boards of corporations decide on the best currency for their company for the coming year as businesses work under
currency competition conditions. Golden gram is one of the currencies issued by one of the biggest, most reliable private banks.
It is becoming more and important means of exchange both on the national and international level. It takes a business or
a person 20 minutes to fill out a tax form and send it via Internet to the Tax Office. The government is holding its session
in a small 40 m2 room that it rents from a private company. The prime minister is furious as the session can not begin as 3 out
of 7 ministers are being late. One of the favorite topics that is discussed by people in lunch time — how to better locate
pension money from their individual pension and medical accounts. Wives and husbands argue about the choice of private
suppliers of energy, gas, water and other utility services. Parents and grandparents discuss whether it would be better to
send a child to a private primary school with exchange program with Germany or the USA. Professors of political economy
department of private universities report that out of 1000 PhD papers 95% were based on Austrian school of economics. In
citation index only one student in the country referred to Keynes in a historical survey of major theoretical blunders.
Rand novels Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" are on the top of bestsellers for 58 weeks already. Media reported that one
citizen of the country was stopped at the international airport of Washington D. C. as he did not have a passport. Confused
US immigration officers could not believe that the Country does not issue passports and does not have any trade restrictions
at all. The breaking news of one of the private TV channels is that one of the biggest private courts in the country got
bankrupt as it has lost most of its clients after the corruption scandals with one of the judges.
Many people still think that it is a fantasy, a dream that will never come true. You should never say
"never". Nothing is predetermined in social and political development. To prevent totalitarianism and to ensure sustainable,
long-term development of free capitalist society we should start by designing a marketing strategy to promote and "sell" ideas
of liberty in the market place of ideas and ideologies. Such massive PR-campaign requires much coordination and availability of
many elements:
- appealing wrapping paper or a box for ideas to attract customers. Determination to become the single best supplier,
libertarianism should become the Wal-Mart in the market of ideology. That means that hard core philosophy, economic or political
science jargon will not go. The language must me simple enough, emotional and based on real issues that people care about. It is
too expensive, too ineffective and futile to use terms and words that are discredited by collectivists of all breeds and shapes.
New set of terms and catchy labels should be introduced;
- skillful sympathetic, charming, sexy, influential trustworthy and sellers that are perceived by the target audience as fair
and just. It means that anti-totalitarian forces and individuals should not preach to the convinced, be arrogant, self-conceited
and like Ivory Tower representatives — hardly accessible;
- access to mass media with issues, presenters and alternative solutions that are appealing to people and advertisers and that
increase popularity of these media;
- access to key policy makers of major like minded (or closest possible) political parties and NGOs to arrange public and
intra-organizational debate on major policy and ideological issues;
- becoming a part of intellectual teams that design national and regional policies in various spheres: money, taxes, regulation,
privatization, social security reform, utility reform, poverty reduction, environmental protection, youth movement, gender issues,
international cooperation etc.
- selling students, NGOs, politicians and broader public the intellectual product they want: high quality lectures on topics
they choose, books and publications in the form they like; articles on issues and in the formal they prefer. On the first stage
intellectual product we sell can be a kind of a gift a big retailer gives a customer for his loyalty and money;
- campaign to show inferiority of alternative intellectual products: fact based, with necessary emotional underpinning and
without so called "black PR-campaign tools";
- a Harry Porter of libertarianism should be written. It has been awhile since Rand published her novels "Fountainhead" and
"Atlas shrugged". There is strong demand for a fiction novel that would appeal to the broadest possible audience and would catalyze
public debate about ideology, the place, role of the individual in a society;
- consistent work with potential donors (businesses or all sizes), individuals, international donor organizations. There are
many issues that are common for many organizations. If you have high quality social infrastructure, well trained people and
access to target groups you can be easily chosen for a partner;
- make the best use of Belarus as a case study of the most recent failure of the totalitarian state that declared one
set of goals and came to quite opposite results.
This list is far from being inclusive. It can be further expanded and elaborated upon. Each individual
can start this work today. Each organization can do it too. Of course coordination and intellectual support is much needed. It
is never too late to begin this work. It is never one person or one structure who is to blame that libertarianism, theory of
liberty is still deep in trenches practically all over the world. We have a wonderful product in our hands. We know about its
superior consumer qualities. The public using Austrian school terminology is radically ignorant about it. Do if we are serious
in our declared goals, if we love life and liberty, if we are ready to treat others as we wish to be treated by them, if we do
not want to succumb to looters and witch doctors of new millennium collectivists we must get down to work. It is sure to be
quite a rewarding experience.
Jaroslav Romanchuk
President of Scientific
Research Mises Center
July 2003
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