Alternative Radio - Episode January 15, 2025

The Inversion of Totalitarianism Traditional totalitarianism conjures images of jack-booted stormtroopers, death camps and gulags. In recent years a new variety of totalitarianism has emerged. Noted political theorist Sheldon Wolin calls it “the inversion of totalitarianism” and that it “represents the coming of age of corporate power and political demobilization of the citizenry. Unlike classical totalitarian systems which openly boasted of their intentions to force their societies in a preconceived totality, inverted totalitarianism is not expressly conceptualized as an ideology, nor is it objectified in public policy.” Corporations have de facto power and have carried out a slow-motion coup d’état. How to resist? Wolin says it starts at the local level. Speaker: Sheldon Wolin Sheldon Wolin was an award-winning scholar. Cornel West called him, “The greatest political theorist of and for democracy of our time.” He taught at UC/Berkeley and Princeton. He is the author of Politics and Vision and Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism. He passed away in 2015. Description from www.alternativeradio.org