There is a utopian mirror-universe version of Hobbes that channels Rousseau. The default is utopia and we’d have it if only evil forces were gone. When this utopia isn’t achieved, blame must be placed just as the Soviets did with “wreckers” and Kulaks (or Nazis with Jews). James Lindsay notes as much, which is quoted in full below due to the limitations of Twitter/X embeds.
Why totalitarianism always produces mass murders:
The belief in any totalitarian system is that there is some “enemy” that holds back society. Once that enemy is destroyed and purged, society will flourish, or so the cult belief goes.
That doesn’t happen, though, because the “enemy” isn’t actually the cause of the problem, and purging the “enemy” doesn’t build society.
The power, by then vested in the totalitarian state, still operating on the belief that the “enemy” is the problem, always insists that the lack of prosperity is due to the “enemy” remaining, but in hiding.
That hidden “enemy” must then be found and purged. This also fixes nothing and usually starts making things much worse, and the cycle repeats until collapse.
It only works this way every time.
This also leads to the justification where the purge or punishment justifies itself. If you are the “good” and they are the “evil”, then it is their “evil” that causes you to defend yourself and your goodness. It doesn’t matter if you can point to any actual reason or brook any defense they may pose. That you crushed them is the only proof you need that you are justified. The punishment is its own justification.
