No Sympathy for the Devil (The Totalitarian Impulse)

RC History ^ | 07/20/2025 | John Waters

[Az Joe]

There is a sickness inside our hearts. It aches for something brighter, better, a more resplendent mode of being. God, perhaps. Or temporary deliverance from the pain of being alive, and of knowing we will die. It urges us to create something: family; home; work; and art. To contribute something good and useful to future generations. But it also impels us to assert ourselves here and now, to compete for power over others. Please allow me to introduce myself … Because it feels good to have power—telling people what to do, getting things done. The boss sets the agenda, defines progress as he sees fit, or how he’s told to see fit. When the boss encounters obstacles or impediments to progress – either within himself or externally – power can make the impediments vanish. I’m a man of wealth and taste … Totalitarians, especially, excel at removing impediments to progress, however defined.

[Az Joe]

During the French Revolution, the Jacobins employed the guillotine as part of a public spectacle of murder. They executed some 17,000 people deemed enemies of the revolution. I’ve been around for a long, long year … During Argentina’s Dirty War, the military junta used kidnap and arrest to “disappear” some 30,000 people identified as enemies of the regime. Hitler destroyed millions of enemies across Europe through overwork, torture, execution, shooting, and starvation, and instituted an organizational program designed to exterminate Jews. The Soviet Union contributed the Gulag, a system of forced labor camps that housed both ordinary criminals and political prisoners. Stole many a man’s soul and faith …

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

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[mairdie]

Forever Knight is a vampire show that I wrote a spec script for.
Forever Knight - Sympathy For The Devil - Rolling Stones
https://youtu.be/NFTbbn2hXgg