"If sharp criticism completely disappears, mild criticism will become harsh; if mild criticism is also not allowed, silence will be seen as malicious intent; if silence is no longer permitted, insufficient praise will be considered a crime; if only one voice is allowed to exist, then the only existing voice is a lie." We cannot verify whether this statement was made by Plato, but it does not diminish its persuasive power in describing totalitarian politics.
As for the assertion that "the only existing voice is a lie," Solzhenitsyn, who experienced extreme environments under totalitarian rule, explained it more vividly: "We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, but they still lie." It is clearly an open and shameless lie, yet it is proclaimed as a great truth and widely accepted. Is it meaningful to repeat such lies every day? Of course, it is meaningful, because repetition is a form of power; "a lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth," which is the "Goebbels effect" practiced by the totalitarian Nazi party, turning hollow slogans or blatant lies into truths that the ruled consider self-evident, thus maintaining their totalitarian rule.
Totalitarianism means that social order is entirely achieved through political power or state power, with private space compressed to a nearly non-existent state, and freedom reduced to a minimum, including the freedom to express opinions or even to speak. What can be said and what cannot be said are all within its ruling scope. As Hannah Arendt said: "It means that every aspect of private and public life is encompassed within an all-encompassing ruling process."
After 1920, fascism rose in Italy, characterized by a worship of power, emphasizing that citizens should give up personal freedom for the sake of national interests, promoting a national interest above civic interests. Friedrich and Brzezinski summarized six characteristics of totalitarian rule from a comparative political perspective: an official ideology that everyone must adhere to, a single mass party, a reign of terror enforced by the party or secret police, a monopoly on mass media, modern techniques of personal and psychological control, and central organization and control of the entire economy.
Goebbels, the "creator of Hitler," understood well the way to maintain totalitarian rule, mobilizing nationwide support for the Nazi party's political and religious ideology, promoting and glorifying the Nazi great leader through controlled mass media, advocating for personal worship, ultimately pushing Adolf into a state of extreme arrogance, losing his mind and feeling omnipotent. In the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany, the most concentrated embodiment of the ruling ideology was the "leader's thought," also known as "the nationalization of thought."
For human society, this is a very frightening thing. Once totalitarian rulers hold absolute power, coupled with the flattery and promotion of their followers, they will invariably lose their minds and become foolishly self-satisfied, falling into a vicious cycle of "knowing everything and wanting to guide everything." The only voice they emit is filled with undeniable brutality, and any questioning or opposing voices will be drowned out in the uniform plans of totalitarian rule, even if that plan is just an empty slogan.
It is said that someone once questioned Stalin: "He guides the army in warfare, guides scientists in research, guides painters in painting, guides writers in writing, guides workers in technology; is he a god?" Totalitarian leaders will not tolerate any questioning voice. If you dare to have any opinion different from his, you will be thrown into a mass grave; the entire country can only have the "one" great voice issued by the "great benevolent father."
Until Khrushchev came to power, he criticized Stalin in his famous "secret speech": "He is just a peasant from Georgia; he has guided science, guided military affairs, guided the economy, guided medicine, guided education, guided sports, and even guided writers in writing... In fact, he knows nothing." Khrushchev rehabilitated the victims of the Great Purge, revitalizing various fields, especially the arts, which experienced a thaw.
Ironically, after just criticizing Stalin's autocracy, Khrushchev himself fell into the foolish cycle of "being omnipotent, knowing everything, and wanting to guide everything." It is said that when he visited an art exhibition, he pointed to the abstract sculptor Neyzivisny's work and said, "Even a donkey can paint better than this with its tail." Neyzivisny could not bear it any longer and asked directly, "You are neither an artist nor a critic; on what basis do you say such things?" Khrushchev roared in response: "I didn't understand when I was a miner, I didn't understand when I was a grassroots cadre; at every step of my promotion, I didn't understand. But now I am the chairman of the council of ministers and the leader of the party; do you mean I still don't understand?"
Historian Tuchman said that politics is made up of the smartest people, yet they always make the most foolish decisions. This is a prejudice and delusion; those in power, due to their excessive obsession with power, engage in foolish behaviors that do not match their intelligence. History proves that rulers with absolute totalitarian power, due to their arrogance, greed, panic, and resulting "foolish governance," always leave a lingering shadow. Troy was destroyed by superstition, the Pope by greed, and the British Empire by arrogance...
In the human civilization system, why has it not allowed successive rulers to evolve an effective self-correction mechanism? Tuchman said, "For a country's leader, admitting mistakes is almost impossible." Just like the once-mighty Roman Pope, "the people around him always flatter and praise him, and no one ever tells him what kind of person he really is; in the end, he doesn't want to hear the truth. Every autocratic monarch in history has never heard the truth."
The distortion of information leads totalitarian rulers to develop a false sense of arrogance and confidence, resulting in "tyranny and oppression, excessive ambition, incompetence or decay, foolishness or depravity" in their governance. Clearly, only by allowing diverse voices can we avoid extremism.
The speech control in Showa Japan ignited the tradition of Japanese militarism. They suppressed political pluralism and individualism, striving to unify thought and mobilize people to support national goals, ultimately resulting in an unprecedented disaster for Japan and the world. Before World War II, all newspapers in Japan had to be censored by the military, and only fascist-compliant statements would be published. This led to Japan having only one voice before World War II: "Japan has been bullied enough; we must fight." This singular voice ignited extreme nationalism among the populace, and even many years after the defeat, extreme right forces still defended and glorified its history of invasion.
Every society is pluralistic, with both extreme left and extreme right ideologies always existing. In fact, the existence of these two ideologies is not frightening; what is frightening is when such extreme ideologies become the mainstream of society. A healthy and civilized society must have diverse thoughts and viewpoints, and thus, different voices will inevitably emerge. Various voices should be allowed to be expressed. This way, it maintains the diversity and vitality of society while ensuring that the country is not hijacked by extremist forces and led down a wrong path.