Fear As A Political Weapon

  The oscillation between "reform" and repression is the common practice of all totalitarian states. In Soviet Russia Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy, followed by Stalin's purges, followed by Khruschev's reforms, followed by Bhreznev's repression, followed by Gorbachev's and Yeltsin's reforms, followed by Putin's repression.
  In China we saw Mao's "Hundred Flowers" movement, followed by the Cultural Revolution, followed by the opening to the West, followed by the massacre in Tiennamen Square.
  The common thread in such states is fear in both times of reform and repression. In times of repression the fear is political, present, and real, taking the form of violence. In times of "reform" the fear is psychological as the People still remember the slaughter of the time of repression. They are kept in line not by actual violence, but by the memory of it; not by the bullet from the gun, but by the smoke which still emanates from the last shot. Fear is a potent weapon.
   Let us work for that weapon to never be turned upon the American People.